Centre for Internet and Society

28th Session of the WIPO SCCR: Report on the Proposed Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations

nehaa — 2014-08-07T10:44:05Z

The 28th Session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (“the Committee” / "SCCR") took place in Geneva from June 30, 2014 to July 04, 2014. In this article, Nehaa Chaudhari, who attended this meeting on behalf of CIS, discusses the developments that took place with reference to the proposed Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations (“Broadcast Treaty”).

At its 28^th Session, the WIPO SCCR devoted two and a half days to a discussion on the Broadcast Treaty. For the majority of this period informal discussions (“Informals”) were held between member states and there was no plenary. While Non- Government Organizations ( “NGOs”) and those member states who were not participating in the Informals were able to listen to the discussions taking place, we were requested to not report about them in any form whatsoever. Consequently, this article does not mention, cite or discuss the conversations in the Informals in any manner whatsoever, and is confined to deliberations at the plenary sessions.

Preliminary

Proceedings on Day 1 (June 30, 2014) began with a speech by the Director General of WIPO, Francis Gurry. Commending the “exceptional progress” made by the Committee over the past few years, Mr. Gurry cited the Marrakesh and Beijing Treaties as success stories. In talking about the Broadcast Treaty, Mr. Gurry said that the then ongoing FIFA World Cup, 2014 was “the perfect example” for member states on the economic and social importance of broadcasting. He went on to add that the Broadcast Treaty was the last component of the international legal framework which had not been “updated for the digital environment”. Identifying the challenge as developing a shared understanding of what and how to protect, Mr. Gurry was of the opinion that the Committee would make progress on the development of an instrument that was narrow in scope to combat cross border digital piracy.

In his statement following that of the Director General, the Chairperson, Edgar Martin Moscoso Villacorta (“the Chair”) explained that he had held consultations with the regional coordinators and three other nations from each group on June 27, 2014 to figure out how best to proceed at the upcoming 28^th Session of the Committee; before opening the floor to Regional Coordinators for their Opening Statements.

Group Opening Statements by Regional Coordinators : Reflections of a North-South Divide

Opening statements by Regional Coordinators on behalf of their groups reflected sentiments similar to those witnessed at the 26^th and 27 ^th Sessions of this Committee[1]. While there was broad consensus on having a well-balanced work plan that addressed the different issues of broadcasting, limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives as well as limitations and exceptions for education, teaching, research and persons with disabilities, statements also reflected the disagreements between various groups on the maturity (or the lack thereof) of the various items on the agenda, largely along the fault-lines of the classic Global North v. the Global South. For instance, statements by the European Union (“the EU”) and Group B, the group of developed countries emphasised the convening of a diplomatic conference for the Broadcast Treaty, but on the other hand, statements by the groups of developing countries highlighted the importance of limitations and exceptions.

The Regional Coordinator (presently, Paraguay) for the Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (“GRULAC”) placed emphasis on a “well balanced work plan which envisages the different issues” but also stated that for their group, “the issue of limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives and educational and research institutions (is) of the utmost importance.”

The representative of Bangladesh, in his capacity as the Regional Coordinator of the Asia-Pacific Group said that their group considered all issues to be equally important, notwithstanding the fact that they might enjoy different levels of discussion at the SCCR; and on the issue of protection of broadcasting organizations said that the group was “willing to work constructively” and hoped to continue “meaningful technical discussions in finalization of the scope of the protection of broadcasting organizations and to advance further to a balanced international instrument of rights and responsibility for the broadcasting organizations.”

The statement of the Central European and Baltic States (“CEBS”) Group, presently represented by the Czech Republic categorically stated that the CEBS Group was “striving for the successful conclusion of the work regarding the protection of broadcasting organizations with the aim to recommend to the General Assemblies to convene the Diplomatic Conference to take place, as soon as possible, preferably in 2015.” (sic)

Japan, speaking on behalf of Group B, in their statement recognised the “tradition…to allocate more time to discussion on more mature subject matters”, referring to the Broadcast Treaty and, like the CEBS Group, also touched upon the issue of convening a Diplomatic Conference as soon as possible.

The European Union (“the EU”) has perhaps been one of the most vocal proponents of the Broadcast Treaty at past sessions of the Committee, and carried forward this tradition into the 28^th session as well, labelling negotiations on the Broadcast Treaty “a high priority” for Member States. The EU also echoed the statements made by the CEBS Group as well as Group B on the need to call for a diplomatic conference “as soon as possible.” In order to achieve this, said the EU, there was a need to build a “broad consensus” on the problems that needed to be addressed as well as on the extent of protection envisaged.

Technical Assistance from Broadcasters

The United States of America placed an emphasis on a treaty that would address challenges posed by new technologies, indicated in their request to the Secretariat to inform the member states about different sizes and types of broadcasters using new technologies by conducting a survey, recognising that a lot had changed over the course of the past 12 years, when a report on this issue was last prepared; a proposal which was supported by the delegation of India as well.

Following these comments by the United States of America (but in an unrelated move), the Chair suggested technical assistance be sought from broadcasters. Surprisingly, he identified three NGOs (in this case associations of broadcasters), namely Asian Broadcasters Union, International Association of Broadcasters and National Association of Broadcasters, who could provide technical assistance if required.

This stance was supported strongly by the delegations of Egypt and the Russian Federation. While it also found support from the Japanese delegation, it also pointed out that a mere presentation might bring about some confusion, and instead thought that it might be a better idea to update the studies commissioned by WIPO in 2002.

Resistance to this proposition was offered by the delegation of Venezuela who questioned the “expertize of these experts to speak to the Member States about such a complicated issue” and “the selection criteria” among others. Exclaiming in surprise at the manner on which this proposal had been accepted, the delegate sough further clarifications on the issue, demanding to know “who these very important people are who are going to come in and help us solve a problem in which we have not been able to solve in 10 years.” (sic.) The concern on the absence of transparency was also echoed by the delegate of Uruguay, who expressed his great “astonishment” at “three technical experts” at the session, saying that it was “most inappropriate” to be informed about the presence of technical experts after regional coordinators had earlier expressed their refusal to have such an exercise. In response, the Chair said that this was a decision that he had taken in response to a request for technical consultations made at the earlier session of the Committee. He went on to add that the Committee could do without the technical assistance if perceived to be unnecessary and the process not transparent.

Scope of Protection: Article 6

The Scope of Protection under the Broadcast Treaty is laid out under Article 6 of WorkingDocument 27/2/Rev. (“Working Document”). This document lays out the text which forms the basis of the negotiations at the SCCR.

Confining the Broadcast Treaty to a signal based approach versus broadening the scope of the treaty to a more technologically neutral rights based approach was the chief point of conflict between the developed and the developing nations, reflect in their statements discussed below.

Opening the proceedings, the United States of America (“the US”/ “USA”) placed complete support on the statement of Group B; but also added that the way forward “to finding consensus” was to “focus on a narrow treaty based on the core need of broadcasters for protection from signal piracy.” The US proceeded to outline its proposal of “a single right to authorise the simultaneous or near simultaneous transmission of signal to the public over any medium.” Highlighting the key advantages to this proposal the US said that its proposal was “modern”, recognizing the importance of “new technologies that are used for engaging in signal piracy and avoids a number of negatives as to which concerns have been expressed in the discussions”. However, the US was also quick to clarify that the “right would be limited to protection for the signal and not to the content contained in fixations of the broadcast” and would also “avoid interference with the rights of the right holders in the content that was broadcast” as well as “avoid any impact on consumers who were engaged in private activities such as home copying”.

India reiterated its serious concerns regarding webcasting, simulcasting and retransmission over computer networks. Japan, on the other hand, while most other nations chose to reserve their comments for discussions in the Informals alone.

On the third day of this meeting, the Chair presented the progress that had been made over the course of the discussions taking place in the Informals. He said that webcasting had been removed from the scope of application. The concern, said the Chair, was that webcasting was also carried out by other actors- not just broadcasting organizations, and that having different rules for different actors carrying out the same activity would not be “a good message” (sic.)

Rights of Broadcasters: Article 9

The Rights of Broadcasters under the Broadcast Treaty are laid out under Article 9 of the Working Document. The US said that it “remained convinced” that a narrow scope of rights would make it possible for the SCCR to recommend convening a diplomatic conference. The Russian Federation on the other spoke of the need to take into account the “appearance of new technologies which provide new possibilities, particularly the use, and the unauthorized use of the signal.”

As in the case of the Scope of Application, in the case of Rights of Broadcasters as well, the Chair updated the plenary on the discussions in the Informals. The discussions were informed by two informal documents listing out the rights as well as the scope. While discussing the rights, said the Chair, it was decided to merge simultaneous and near simultaneous retransmission since they were closely related. The rights sought to be granted to the broadcasters include those of fixation, reproduction of fixations, distribution of fixations and performance of the broadcast among others.

In response to the Chair’s invitation for suggestions, the delegate of Sri Lanka suggested that one of the sentences be rephrased as follows: “Transmission or retransmission of the broadcast signal to the public over any medium whether simultaneous, near simultaneous or deferred including on demand transmission on a broadcast signal.” She also added fixation rights should be granted only to that extent of a file being copied for the purpose of transmission, before it has been transmitted. A few other delegations either echoed similar sentiments, or chose to remain silent until the Informals.

Comments by NGOs

On the third (and the final for the Broadcast Treaty), day of discussions, the Chair opened the floor to interventions, observations and comments by NGOs.

AIR, representing broadcasting organizations spoke of the “great need” to update the Rome Convention because of the prevalence of piracy, especially transmissions over the internet. The National Association of Broadcasters cited instances of television piracy as examples of the harm to broadcasters and need for such a treaty. The Japanese Commercial Broadcasters Association expressed its support for post fixation rights and said that they were important to broadcasters, “especially the right of making available a fixed broadcast is crucial in order to fight online piracy which we said a number of times before…” (sic.). Also recognising the need to be flexible, the Japanese Commercial Broadcasters expressed their support to the proposal made by the Japanese delegation in making some rights optional.

A different set of concerns was articulated by other NGOs, who were not associations of broadcasters. Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue ( “TACD”) spoke of the possible “collateral damange to public access and culture” and the addition of “new layers of complications barriers and costs added” to access to information and knowledge by consumers. Further, highlighting the irony of the SCCR with the strong push towards a binding Broadcast Treaty “with a wide scope”, the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue said that this was in “stark contrast on the part of some other Member States to discussing new global norms” to facilitating the role played by libraries and archives. Additionally, TACD also said that there was the danger of “opening up an endless and incomprehensive Pandora box of overlapping rights on content between non creators of broadcasts and the real creators” (sic.), and also expressed grave concern over the negative impact of post fixation rights on the use of news, culture and information by consumers ad users. “In consideration of a new international norm for broadcasters, we must not forget the common food for the free flow of information for citizens,” said TACD. It also said that the focus of the work should not be to satisfy the interests of one special group while ignoring the possible negative unintentional consequences on “normal users”, and asked for a social impact assessment of the Broadcast Treaty.

Knowledge Ecology International (“KEI”) in their statement stated that the broadcasters had failed to meet their burden of proving the need for “exclusive rights to fight piracy.” In order for the Committee to make progress, KEI suggested that the focus be on a “narrow treaty based on a single right corresponding to the key need of broadcasting organizations for protection from signal piracy.” KEI also questioned and opposed the extension of broadcasters’ rights to cable television and other services which were not only subscription based, but were also protected under theft of service laws. Further confining the scope of the Broadcast Treaty, KEI suggested that the treaty only deal with over the air broadcasts which were free to the public.

A powerful statement by CCIA referred to fixed signals as “fiction” and said that the existing model in the Brussels Satellite Convention was adequate to protect piracy of signals. Echoing the sentiments of various other organisations as well (including CIS as discussed below), CCIA stated that while broadcasters had stated that the present approach was not adequate to protect their interests, no reasons had been offered fir the same. In agreement with other nations as well as TACD before it, CCIA also sought information from WIPO on the “real world impact of the obligations” it intended to create.

Also joining the call for impact assessment was the Third World Network (“TWN”). TWN also spoke of restricting the scope of the Broadcast Treaty to the mandate accorded to the SCCR in line with the 2007 General Assembly decision, the need to base discussing on WIPO’s Development Agenda, and the “negative implications on the free flow of information over the Internet and the negative impact on the public domain and access to knowledge.”

The Centre for Internet and Society (“CIS”), in agreement with CCIA pointed out that the broadcasters had not discharged their burden of justifying the need for the Broadcast Treaty and why “international instruments including, among others, the TRIPS and the Rome Convention” were insufficient to address the concerns of broadcasters. Joining other organizations including CCIA, TACD and TWN in a call for a further study, CIS requested an impact assessment of the Broadcast Treaty on all stakeholders. Further, CIS pointed out that if the rationale for seeking this protection was the protection of the underlying investment, IP based transmissions should be out of the scope of this treaty, since the investments involved in IP based transmissions and those in broadcasting in a traditional sense were very different. CIS also strongly opposed the inclusion of fixation and post fixation rights since they were inconsistent with a signals based approach and pointed out the irony in protecting a signal for twenty years, when the signal itself lasted milliseconds.

IFTA, the Independent Film and Television Alliance placed emphasis on the separation of the content and well as the broadcast signal as well maintaining a balance by also safeguarding public interest.

Chair’s Conclusions

After five days of deliberations, the 28^th Session of the SCCR, just like the 27^th Session, ended with no conclusions being adopted by the Committee, as a result of which the Chair’s Conclusions were prepared by the Chair, Martin Moscoso.

Clarifying that this item would be maintained on the agenda for the 29^th Session of the SCCR and that there had been no agreement on recommendations to the WIPO General Assembly, the Chair’s Conclusions state that the Committee conducted discussions on issues relating to “categories of platforms and activities to be included under the object and scope of protection to be granted to broadcasting organizations in the traditional sense, and initiated discussions on definitions.” The Chair’s Conclusions also clarify that “the Secretariat was requested by some Members to provide an update of the 2010 study on “Current Market and Technology Trends in the Broadcasting Sector” (Document SCCR 19/12), focusing on the use of digital technology by cablecasting and broadcasting organizations in the traditional sense whether public or commercial, including in developing countries, with the aim of presenting the results of the study and providing opportunities for technical discussion at the 29th session of the SCCR.”

[1] See http://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/wipo-sccr-consolidated-26-session-consolidated-notes-part-1 (last accessed 17 July, 2014), http://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/wipo-sccr-26-session-consolidated-notes-part-2 (last accessed 17 July, 2014) and http://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/wipo-sccr-26-session-consolidated-notes-part-3 (last accessed 17 July, 2014) for CIS’ report on the 26^th Session of the Committee.

See http://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/wipo-sccr-27-discussions-transcripts (last accessed 17 July, 2014) for transcripts of the discussions at the 27 ^th Session of the Committee.

See http://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-statement-limitations-and-exceptions-education-training-research-institutions-persons-with-other-disabilities (last accessed 17 July, 2014) and http://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-statement-treaty-for-limitations-and-exceptions-for-libraries-and-archives (last accessed 17 July, 2014) for CIS’ Statements at the 26^th Session of the Committee.

See http://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-statement-27-sccr-on-wipo-proposed-treaty-for-protection-of-broadcasting-organizations (last accessed 17 July, 2014), http://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-statement-orphan-works-retracted-withdrawn-works-and-works-out-of-commerce-at-27-sccr-on-limitations-and-exceptions-for-libraries-and-archives (last accessed 17 July, 2014) and http://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-statement-on-technological-measures-of-protection-27-sccr-on-limitations-exceptions-for-libraries-and-archives (last accessed 17 July, 2014) for CIS’ Statements at the 27^th Session of the Committee.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wipo-sccr-28-proposed-treaty-for-protection-of-broadcasting-organizations

Grounds for Compulsory Patent Licensing in United States, Canada, China, and India

maggie — 2014-07-29T08:45:25Z

The research paper seeks to answer questions about the grounds of compulsory licensing in international treaties with specific examples from America and Asia. The grounds for granting compulsory licenses, jurisdictional comparison of compulsory licensing, etc., are examined.

Holding ownership to a patented invention means one has certain exclusive rights: a) the right to decide who may use the invention during the time of protection; b) the right to give licenses to other parties to use the invention on mutually agreed terms; and, c) the right to sell and transfer ownership of the patent to someone else[1]. Once this patent expires, the invention would enter the public domain to be shared freely[2].

However, given certain conditions, a compulsory license can be granted, in which “authorization [is] given by national authority to a person without or against the consent of the titleholder, for the exploitation of a subject matter protected by a patent or other intellectual property rights” [3].

Compulsory licensing has been most contentiously applied for patented pharmaceutical companies who are often looking to recoup research and development costs. Proponents of this instrument are now also growing amongst advocates for climate change mitigation technologies [4]. The Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Marketplace project is broadly assessing access to knowledge through sub-100 dollar devices. The accessibility of these critical technologies, and subsequent access to knowledge, information, and culture through these devices may be implicated by this policy lever[5]

Thus, this paper seeks to answer the following questions:

What are the grounds for compulsory licensing set in international treaties?
How does Canada, United States (i.e. North America), India, and China (i.e. Asia) provide for compulsory licensing within its national laws?

This will be done through first providing an overview of the relevant international treaties to understand the compulsory licensing framework which signatory nations must follow. Then, utilizing Correa (1999)'s study as a foundation, an analysis of the text within the four aforementioned's codified laws will be assessed to understand all the possible grounds compulsory licensing can be provided. This paper will conclude by summarizing any significant distinctions across the four jurisdictions.

Compulsory Patent Licensing in International Law and Regional Trade Agreements
Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883) [6]
Article 5(2) of the Paris Convention provides each country with the right to "grant compulsory licenses to prevent abuses which might result form the exercise of exclusive rights conferred by the patent… " United States, Canada, China, and India are four of the 175 contracting parties to this convention [7]. This can only be done after 4 years of applying for the patent, or 3 years from the date in which the patent was granted. This means, a sufficient amount of time must have elapsed to allow the rights holder to exploit the invention.

North American Free Trade Agreement (1994)[8]
Article 1704 in NAFTA provides that "appropriate measures" can be taken to control abusive or anticompetitive practices. The United States and Canada have utilized this ground of anti-competition to grant numerous compulsory licenses.

Article 1709 notes that there must not be a discrimination of technology – patents may only be revoked when the grant has not remedied lack of exploitation, and that the use of the patent adheres to certain criteria.

In 1993, Canada repealed the compulsory licensing regulations from its Patent Law to comply with the international TRIPS and NAFTA treaties.

Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (1994) [9]
All members of the World Trade Organization is provided the right to use compulsory licenses via Article 31 Other Use Without Authorization of the Right Holder within the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement. This Article stipulates 12 procedural provisions: compulsory licensing should be granted on 'individual merits'[10], must have shown prior effort to obtain authorization under reasonable commercial terms [11], must be non-exclusive[12], adequate renumeration must be provided[13], and the license must be terminated as soon as the circumstances for which it was granted cease to exist[14].

Suggested, but not obligatory grounds for which compulsory licensing could be granted under the TRIPs agreement are a) emergency and extreme urgency, b) anticompetitive practices, c) public non-commercial use, and the d) use of dependent patents[15].

Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (2001)
The Doha Declaration is a clarification of the earlier TRIPS agreement in response to some countries' public health concerns due to obstacles to accessing patented medicines.[16]

Paragraph 4 of the Doha Declaration expressly allows Members to take measures to protect public health, while paragraph 5b states that "each Member has the right to grant compulsory licenses and the freedom to determine the grounds upon which such licenses are granted". Freedom of each country to define the terms of their intellectual property rights is also further reiterated.

Grounds for granting compulsory licenses
Correa (1999) in his paper Intellectual Property Rights and the Use of Compulsory License: Options for Developing Countries outlines eight common grounds which provided the framework for this comparative analysis between the jurisdictions of the United States, Canada, India, and China. Through analyzing the codified law on compulsory licensing, a few other grounds were added to the list.

Refusal to deal
In principle, the patent owner has an exclusive right to determine whether or not to issue a license to a third party. However, if under reasonable terms, one still refuses to issue a license, national courts may interpret this as an abuse of patent rights, resulting in lack of availability of the product and commercial development. In the United States, this is often raised as an anticompetitive issue.

Non-working and inadequate supply
The "working obligation" was initially understood as the industrial use of an invention, which according to Article 31 of the TRIPs Agreement required working 'predominantly' for local markets. However, many countries have defined 'working' to include commercial use of the invention, in which importation of a product would suffice[17].

Public interest
The public interest needs to be balanced with individuals' rights, and it is the responsibility of the courts or administration in each respective country to determine this. Thus, what actually constitutes as "public interest" varies depending on time and jurisdiction. For example, countries with limited industrial development could consider a compulsory patent to develop its national industries as for public interest [18]. Accessibility of a product at the lowest price have been argued to be in public interest, but some courts have ruled this to be invalid[19]

Anticompetitive practices
A patent is essentially a temporary monopoly meant to provide an economic reward for the inventor's work, as well as additional incentive to continue producing[20]. However, excessive monopolization through unlawful or unfair practices, such as when a patent is overly broad, acquiring and accumulating patent portfolios, and subsequent patent trolling are some acts that be considered anticompetitive patent practices[21]. Compulsory licenses have also been granted through this ground under anti-monopoly, antitrust, and competition laws.

Governmental use
Each country's government decides what is to be considered as governmental use. Occasionally synonymous to government use has also been public, non-commercial use, or as suggested by the TRIPs agreement, for the purposes of national emergency or urgency. This is assuming the government is acting on behalf of public interest; given its lack of an international standardized definition, this ground can be utilized and interpreted in other ways.

Facilitate use of dependent patents
When a new invention (dependent invention) cannot be developed without infringing on the license of an existing patented invention, (principle invention) a compulsory licensing can be granted to facilitate innovation. This ensures the patents of principle inventions would not block technical progress. The TRIPs agreement expressly allows this, provided reasonable compensation is articulated. In some jurisdictions, cross-licensing, (which involves a licensing agreement between two parties to exploit each other's intellectual property[22]) can be negotiated to resolve this issue.

Compulsory licenses for medicines
Numerous countries have issued licenses for increased accessibility to food and medicine. Prior to the Doha Round, TRIPs prohibited this, as Article 27 states "national laws cannot discriminate in exercise of patent rights on the basis of field of technology". However, the Doha Declaration addressed this, allowing pharmaceuticals to have increased accessibility (via pricing, production, and importation) for the sake of public health.

Exclusive Grant Back or Coercive Package Licensing
A grant back can be agreed upon when there is an expectation of an improvement on the licensed technology through increased superiority or method [23]. This allows the licensee to commercialize an improved product without having to file for another patent[24]. Exclusive grant back provides the licensor the exclusive right to use or sublicense improvements, while licensee retains non-exclusive right to practice the improvements.[25] Grant-backs, particularly exclusive ones are sometimes deemed as anticompetitive.

A package license, otherwise known as patent pools is used when the licensing of more than one patent is necessary to commercialize an invention [26] Coercive package licensing can occur when the licensing of other patents within the package is forceful and unnecessary. The defining and interpretation of 'coercion' ultimately depends on each country's respective authorities.

Hindrance from Importation of Abroad[27]
This ground may fall under non-working, but is unique in that it notes a state's ability to grant compulsory license on behalf of a foreign-owned patent. Yang (2012) cites that this as one of the most controversial aspects of compulsory patent licensing, as countries may feel undermined when another state can grant compulsory licenses that are against their own interests[28].

Jurisdictional comparison of Compulsory Licensing
The following table was developed as an exercise to review compulsory licensing within the jurisdictions of the United States, Canada, India, and China. Utilizing Correa (1999)'s findings as a skeletal framework, the four aforementioned countries' codified patent laws were used to determine the grounds for compulsory licensing. The main compairson was done through analyzing the specific text within the laws of the four jurisdiction – one approach to treaty and law interpretation[29] However, for those countries that were lacking general provisions on compulsory licensing (i.e. United States, and eventually Canada in 1993[30]), there was a need to expand to a more comprehensive approach and look through other codified laws beyond patents and intellectual property, as well as through case law to see if the mentioned grounds have been used to provide for compulsory licenses[31].

Grounds		Countries	Law
Refusal to deal and/or abuses of patentees' exclusive rights		U.S	n/a in codified law…refusal to deal is an essential element of intellectual property rights…but can lead to anti-competition in which Antitrust laws can be used
		Canada	Patent Law - Abuse of Rights 65.2(d): "if by reason of refusal of patentee to grant* a license or licenses on reasonable terms…*
		India	Patent Act 1970 S.4(d) *"Refusal to deal"* includes any agreement which restricts, or is likely to restrict, by any method the persons or classes of persons to whom goods are sold or from whom goods are bought Patent Act, 1970 S. 84.7(a) " If by reason of refusal…ii) demand for the patented article has not been met to an adequate extent or on reasonable terms; or iii) a market for the patented article manufactured in India is not being supplied or developed; or iv) the establishment or development of commercial activities in India is not prejudiced Patent Act 1970 S.84 (6) " …Controller shall take into account, - i) nature of invention, the time which has elapsed since the sealing of the patent and the measures already taken by the patentee or any licensee to make full use of the invention; iv) ..whether applicant has made efforts to obtain a license from the patentee on reasonable terms conditions, and such efforts have not been successful within a reasonable period *period not ordinarily exceeding a period of six months* as the Controller may deem fit
		China	Patent Law of the People's Republic of China - Article 48 (1): " When it has been 3 years since the date the patent right is granted, and four years since the date the patent application is submitted, the patentee, without legitimate reasons, fails to have the patent exploited or fully exploited"
Non-working and inadequate supply		U.S.	n/a
		Canada	Patent Act 1935: s.65 a): "… is capable of being worked within Canada but is not being worked within Canada on a commercial scale, and no satisfactory reason can be given for that non-working…" REPEALED in 1993 due to NAFTA and TRIPS
		India	Patents Act, 1970 S. 84 (1): " At any time after expiration of 3 years from the date of the grant of a patent, any person interested may make an application… b)…not available to the public at a reasonably affordable price, or c) that the patented invention is not available to the public at a reasonably affordable price Patent Act 1970 S.84(2): "…reasonable requirements of the public.. not satisfied or that the patented invention is not worked in the territory of India, Patent Act, 1970 S. 84.7(a) "If by reason of refusal…ii) demand for the patented article has not been met to an adequate extent or on reasonable terms; or iii) a market for the patented article manufactured in India is not being supplied or developed; or iv) the establishment or development of commercial activities in India is not prejudiced Patent Act, 1970 S. 84.7(d): " If the patented invention is not being worked in the territory of India on a commercial scale to an adequate extent, or is not being so worked to the fullest extent that is reasonably practicable
		China	Measures for Compulsory licensing of Patent Implementation (2012) - Ch 2 Art. 5: "If without good reason not implemented or fully implemented, their licensing patent within 3 years from the date of grant of patent right..and 4 years from the date of filing patent"
Public interest:		U.S.	"...no general provision allowing authorities to override patents in the larger public interest” [32] Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 - allow government to exercise "march in" rights with regard to government funded research results that universities might otherwise patent But US has granted compulsory licenses when felt public interest was at stake (Atomic Energy Act and Clean Air Act 1970, Federal Non-Nuclear Energy Research and Development Act 1973)
Canada	Patent Law - Abuse of Rights 65.2(d): "if by reason of refusal of patentee to grant a license or licenses on reasonable terms… in public interest that license/licenses should be granted" Patent Act S. 39. (3) License under patent relating to food: " In the case of any patent…of food…shall grant to any person applying…Commissioner shall have regard to the desirability of making the food available to the public at the lowest possible price consistent with giving to the inventor due reward for the research leading to the invention" REPEALED in 1993 due to NAFTA and TRIPS
India	Patent Act 1970, S. 84 (2)…not available to the public at a reasonably affordable price Patent Act 1970 S. 84 (6) " …Controller shall take into account, ii) the ability of the applicant to work the invention to the public advantage Patent Act, 1970 - S. 92 Special provision for compulsory licenses on notifications by Central Government-(1): " If Central Government is satisfied… circumstances of national emergency or in circumstances of extreme urgency, or in case of public non commercial use...
China	Patent Law - Article 49: " Where a national emergency or any extraordinary state of affairs occurs, or public interests so require…" Measures for Compulsory Licensing of Patent Implementation - Article 6: If emergency or irregular event of the state…or for purposes of public interest
Anti-competitive practices		U.S.	Antitrust & Trade Law: Sherman Act 15 U.S. C.S. 2 - Monopolizing trade a felony; penalty: " Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize…any part of trade or commerce among several States, or with foreign nations…deemed guilty of a felony, and conviction.."
		Canada	Competition Act (S. 32 RSC 1985): " …where use has been made of exclusive rights and privileges conferred by one or more patents for invention…(a) limit unduly the facilities for transporting, producing, manufacturing, supplying…may be a subject of trade or commerce, (b) restrain or injure, unduly, trade or commerce…(c) prevent, limit, or lessen, unduly, the manufacture or production…or unreasonably enhance the price thereof, or (d) prevent or lessen, unduly, competition in…
India	India Patent Law Chapter 90 (1.ix) Terms and Conditions of compulsory licenses… granted to remedy a practice determined after judicial or administrative process to be anticompetitive…
China	Measures for Compulsory Licensing of Patent Implementation, 2012 - Article 11: " …that actions of patent holder in exercising patent right…deemed to be monopolistic actions" Patent Law of the People's Republic of China - Article 48 (2): " …patentee's exercise of the patent right is in accordance with law, confirmed as monopoly and its negative impact on competition needs to be eliminated or reduced"
Governmental use		United States	28 United States Code 1498: " …when used or manufactured by or for the United States without license of the owner…remedy shall be..Claims for recovery of his reasonable and entire compensation for such use and manufacture…" ie. Government does not have to seek license or negotiate for use, and the only appeal for patent owner is compensation
		Canada	Under the 1993 and 1994 amendments to the Patent Act of 1985, section 19.1: "the Commissioner may, on application by the Government of Canada or the government of a province, authorize the use of a patented invention by that government ."
		India	Patent Act, 1970 - S. 100 Power of Central Government to use inventions for purposes of Government (1): "…at any time…the Central Government and any person authorized in writing… may use the invention for the purposes of Government in accordance with provisions of this chapter" Patent Act, 1970 S. 100 Power of Central Government to use inventions for purposes of Government (2): " Where an invention has, before priority date of relevant claim, been duly recorded in a document, or tested or tried, by or on behalf of the Government or Government undertaking… any use of the invention by the Central Government or any person authorized in writing by it for the purposes of Government may be made free of any royalty or other renumeration to the patentee " Patent Act, 1970 S. 100 Power of Central Government to use inventions for purposes of Government (6): " The right to make, use, exercise, and vend an invention for the purposes of Government under sub-section (1) shall include the right to sell on noncommercial basis, and person c laiming through..as if Central Government or authorized were the patentee of the invention
China	Patent Law of PRC Art. 14: "If an invention patent of a State-owned enterprise or institution is of great significance to national or public interests, upon approval by State Council.. Patent Law PRC Article 49: " Where a national emergency or any extraordinary state of affairs occurs…patent administration department under the State council may grant a compulsory license for exploitation of an inanition patent or utility model patent" Patent Law PRC Article 14: “ If an invention patent of a State-owned enterprise or institution is o f great significance to national or public interests, upon approval by the State Council, the relevant competent department under the State Council ...may decide to have the patent widely applied within an approved scope and allow the designated units to exploit the patent, and the said units shall pay royalties to the patentee in accordance with the regulations of the State.
Facilitate use of dependent patents		United States	N/A - U.S. Does has not formally codified a general provision for Compulsory licensing of Dependent Patents [33]
		Canada	N/A
		India	Patent Act 1970 - Section 88 Power of Controller in Granting Compulsory licenses (3): …if Controller satisfied that the applicant cannot efficiently or satisfactorily work the license granted to him under those patents without infringing the other patents held by the patentee, and if those patents involve important technical advancement of considerable economic significance …may direct grant of a license…
		China	Patent Law - Ch 6 Art 51: " If an invention/utility model…represents major technological advancement of remarkable economic significance, compared with an earlier invention or utility model for which the patent right has already been obtained, and exploitation of former relies on exploitation of latter…may grant it a compulsory license to exploit..."
Compulsory licenses for medicines		United States	N/A but has threatened Bayer for compulsory licensing of Ciproflaxin medicine who subsequently dropped their prices drastically [34]
		Canada	Bill C-9 Amendment to Food and Drugs Act, 2004: "…pharmaceutical products intended for export in accordance with that WTO General Council decision…to comply with…sold on domestic market" Patent Act (4) License under patent relating to medicine - " ..intended or capable of being used for the preparation of production of medicine…Commissioner shall grant.. REPEALED in 1993 due to NAFTA and TRIPS
India	Patent Act 1970 Section 92.A Compulsory license for export of patent pharmaceutical products in certain exceptional circumstances: " …shall be available for manufacture and export of patented pharmaceutical products [35] to any country having insufficient or no manufacturing capacity in the pharmaceutical sector for the concerned product to address public health problems…" Patent Act, 1970 Section 83.(d): "General principles applicable to working of patented inventions… do not impede protection of public health and nutrition…
China	Patent Law of PRC: Article 50: " For the benefit of public health…grant compulsory license for manufacture of the drug, for which a patent right has been obtained, and for its export to the countries or regions that conform to the provisions…" Measures for Compulsory Licensing of Patent Implementation, 2012 - Ch 2 Art 7: " For purposes of public health…able to implement petition for compulsory licensing…for manufacture of patented medicines..and export of, to following countries/regions: 1) The most underdeveloped countries/regions; 2) Developed/developing members of the WTO
Exclusive grant-back and Coercive package licensing		U.S.	Legal in the past – granted in Transparent Wrap Machine Corp v Stokes & Smith Co. but discouraged... interpreted by Rule of Reason doctrine which is an interpretation of Sherman Antitrust (Anti-competition) Act[36] Now Department Of Justice from 2007 has said must be non-exclusive under its Antitrust laws [37]
		Canada	N/A
		India	Patent Act, 1970 Section 84 (7.c): …Reasonable requirements of the public shall be deemed not to have been satisfied [38] - c) if the patentee imposes a condition upon the grant of license under the patent to provide exclusive grant back, prevention to challenges to validity of patent, or coercive package licensing
		China	N/A
Hindered by importation from abroad		U.S.	N/A
		Canada	N/A
		India	Patent Act, 1970 Section 84 (7.e): " if the working of the patented invention in the territory of India on a commercial scale is being prevented or hindered by the importation from abroad of the patented article by…i) patentee..ii) persons purchasing…iii) other persons not taking proceedings for infringement
China	N/A

Summary of Cross-Jurisdictional Comparison
As mentioned previously, this comparison necessitated an expansion into codified law outside of compulsory licensing and patent law into case law, since the United States had never written a general provision for compulsory licensing, and Canada had repealed theirs in 1993 upon the signing of the NAFTA and TRIPS agreement. For Canada, compulsory licenses (CLs) continued to be granted following the repeal through the Foods and Drugs Act, as well as the Competition Act. Despite United States' lack of general provisions, Knowledge Ecology International claims it is the world's leader in the use of CLs, yet hypocritical to developing countries' requests for affordable patented pharmaceuticals.[39]

In general, India and China both have very extensive compulsory licensing laws. China's State Intellectual Property Office even developed additional Measures to account for the execution of compulsory licensing. Despite comprehensive CL provisions, India has had only one compulsory license ever granted in the case of Natco Pharma Ltd v. Bayer Corporation, for the domestic production of cancer-drug Nexavar. [40] China has yet to grant any compulsory license, but the new Measures may signify an increasing willingness to do so, or even to be used as a bargaining tool. However, given its goal of developing domestic intellectual property (i.e. China's 5-year plan), it is unlikely that China will grant compulsory licenses in the masses.[41]

In regards to the specific grounds themselves, some grounds noted particular differences per country.

Under U.S. Intellectual Property Law, refusal to deal is actually is considered a right, thus does not provide for compulsory licensing; depending on the degree however, it could lead to anti-competition[42]. According to the Paris Convention, one can only request consideration for a CLs 3 years from the granting of a patent, or 4 years from application, allowing said time for provision of dealing. However, India seems to have a more stringent period of not exceeding a period of six months, while China noted specifically not 'without legitimate reasons'.

The non-working and inadequate supply was again not present in U.S. Law, yet Canada did include it in its former compulsory licensing provision prior to repeal. Canada had defined 'working' specifically referring to a commercial scale when compulsory licensing was in effect. India's 'working' means being available at a reasonably affordable price, and supplied or developed, through the establishment of commercial activities, worked to the fullest extent that is fully practicable, while China mentioned non-working 'if without good reason, it is not implemented or fully implemented'.

The United States does not have any provision providing explicitly for public interest. However, under the Bayh-Dole Act, government-funding for research during the economic crisis in the 1970s was granted as long as the inventors agreed to allow petition for 'march-in rights', in which the government or a third party “shall have the right...to require the contractor...to grant a nonexclusive, partially exclusive, or exclusive license” (35 U.S. Code S203(a)) if it meets one of four requirements - one being to “...alleviate health and safety needs which are not reasonably satisfied...” (35 U.S. Code Section 203). Canada's public interest clause had existed, but was repealed. India now states that CLs can be granted to make available to the public “at a reasonably affordable price, to public advantage, and for public non-commercial use”. In China, public interest is provided in conditions of 'national emergency or extraordinary state of affairs, for the purpose of public interest'.

The United States does however strongly uphold and value competition, and have granted CLs to remedy anticompetitive practices under its Antitrust laws, prohibiting any 'attempt to monopolize any part of trade or commerce'. China also uses the language of 'monopolistic actions' and allows compulsory licensing if its “negative impact on competition needs to be eliminated or reduced.” Canada's Competition Act allows for compulsory licensing if one 'limits unduly, the facilities for transporting, producing, manufacturing... restrain or injure unduly, trade or commercial etc..' .preventing fair competition. India also notes the remedying of anticompetitive acts in its patent laws.

Governmental use in the United States have been granted for use by the Department of Defense and as mentioned previously for the Bayh-Dole Act. However, unlike the other countries of focus, there is no way to appeal a CL for the purposes of government-use. The only way to remedy this as a patent owner is compensation. In Canada, the Commissioner may on application by the Government of Canada or province authorize a CL. Indian patent law also allows CLs for the purposes of the Government, with the explicit possibility of being made free of any royalty or renumeration. It also expressly notes within S103 that one can petition to the Government if this occurs. The Chinese Patent Law notes governmental use through the language of 'great significance to national or public interests', and 'national emergency or extraordinary state of affairs. The possibility of appeal is also expressly noted in Article 58.

Neither United States or Canada have formally codified any mention of compulsory licensing for the use of dependent patents, though it does exist in the TRIPs agreement they both comply to. In India patent law, CLs is granted through this ground “only if it involves important technical advancement of considerable economic significance, and... only if it cannot be accomplished without infringing other patents.” In China, the law states that if an “invention/utility model represents major technological advancement...compared with earlier invention or utility model...and the exploitation of former relies on exploitation of the latter...”, a compulsory license may be granted.

Compulsory licensing for medicine in the United States again have never been codified, but have been used to encourage Bayer to reduce their prices under the possibility of being issued compulsory liceninsg. Home to many of the pharmaceutical industries who own patents to medicines, the United States has been called hypocritical due to its common lack of providing affordable pharmaceuticals. Canada allows for CLs under the Food and Drugs Act which points to the World Trade Organization guidelines. Prior to the repeal of its compulsory licensing act, Canada also had specific provisions relating to medicines, and was actually the first country to authorize the compulsory licensing of an AIDS drug for Rwanda for export.[43] In India, the only compulsory license that has ever been granted was for cancer drug Nexavar. In its compulsory licensing provision, it states that CLs are “available for manufacture and export of patented pharmaceutical products...to any country having insufficient or no manufacturing” abilities. Similar to the TRIPs agreement, it also states that none of the principles should impede the protection of public health and nutrition. China's patent laws state that CLs can be used for the benefit of public health. The Measures for Implementation specifies more specifically which countries and regions are allowed, which includes WTO members, or the 'underdeveloped' nations.

Only in the Indian Patent Law does it explicitly allow for CL in the event of exclusive grant backs due to anti-competition and/or not being reasonable to the public. On the contrary, the United States actually had allowed exclusive grant back in the Transparent Wrap Machine Corp v Stokes & Smith Co. case[44]. However, the FTC now strongly recommends against it as it is considered anticompetitive when a grant-back is exclusive[45]. Canada and China does not seem to have this condition in their laws.

Similarly, only in the Indian patent law does coercive package licensing provide for compulsory licensing. This clause may have implications on standard-essential patent pools when attempting to determine which patents are indeed 'essential', and if they comply with fair, reasonable, and non discriminatory regulations[46].

Indian Patent Law also expressly allows for compulsory licensing on the ground that a product is hindered by importation from abroad. It must be proven the lack of accessibility is soley due to the process of it being imported, perhaps affected by natural disasters, socioeconomic reasons, political instability, sanctions, or more – ultimately affecting the cost and availability of this product. [47]

Conclusion and Further Reflections on Compulsory Licensing
Ultimately, there seems to be no correlation between the detail and scope of compulsory licensing (and other codified) law, and the number of compulsory licenses granted. However, it must be noted that the Eastern countries of focus in this review have had much less time developing its intellectual property landscape. In addition, the comprehensiveness of India and China's patent laws also reflect the incorporation of valuable lessons learned from poor implementation of other countries.

The prevalence of broadly defined patents, patent trolling, and the increasing need to navigate patent thickets all act as barriers to innovation and production to a commercial scale in which these technologies can actually be disseminated. The Pervasive Technologies project looks ultimately at bridging the digital divide through providing access to low-cost technology, and subsequently access to information, culture, and knowledge.

Compulsory licenses can be used to decrease the cost burden of production, and reduce barriers to innovation, ultimately providing greater accessibility to these tools for all of society. The Centre for Internet and Society has proposed and continues to advocate the establishment of patent pools for low-access devices through the use of compulsory licenses to achieve this goal[48].

[1] WIPO. What Is Intellectual Property. World Intellectual Property Organization, 2012. Print. 5

[2] WIPO, 6

[3] Correa, Carlos M. “Intellectual Property Rights and the.” Trade Related Agenda Development and Equity (1999): 3

[4] Contreras, Jorge L., and Charles R. McManis. “Compulsory Licensing of Intellectual Property: A Viable Policy Lever for Promoting Access to Critical Technologies?” TRIPS and Developing Countries – Towards a New World Order? (Gustavo Ghidini, Rudolph J.R. Peritz & Marco Ricolfi, eds., 2014 (Edward Elgar)) (2014): 112 Print.

[5] Abraham, Sunil. Letter for Establishment of Patent Pool for Low-Cost Access Devices through Compulsory Licenses. 27 June 2013. Accessed: http://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/letter-for-establishment-of-patent-pool-for-low-cost-access-devices

[6] The Paris Convention is an intellectual property treaty covering industrial property: patents, trademarks, industrial designs, utility models, service marks, trade names, and geographical indicators.

WIPO. “Summary of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883).” World Intellectual Property Organization. Website. http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/paris/summary_paris.html

[7] WIPO. “WIPO-Administered Treaties: Contracting Parties.” World Intellectual Property Organization. Website. http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ShowResults.jsp?treaty_id=2

[8] The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is the largest free trade agreement in the world, with members Canada, United States, and Mexico.
USTR. “North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).” Office of the United States Representative. Website. http://www.ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/north-american-free-trade-agreement-nafta

[9] The Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property RIghts (TRIPS) agreement is a treaty which provides basic intellectual property provisions for international law, and stipulates that members shall be free to determine methods of implementing the provisions, in addition to enact more specific measures provided it coincides with the rest of the agreement.
World Trade Organization. “Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, Including Trade in Counterfeit Goods.”WTO Legal Texts - A Summary of the Final Act of the Uruguay Round. Website. http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/ursum_e.htm#nAgreement

[10] TRIPS - Article 31.a)

[11] TRIPS - Article 31.b)

[12] TRIPS - Article 31.b)

[13] TRIPS – Article 31.h)

[14] TRIPS – Article 31.c)

[15] TRIPS – Article 31

[16] fWHO. “The Doha Declaration on the TRIPs Agreement and Public Health.” World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/policy/doha_declaration/en/

[17] Correa, 11-12.

[18] Fauver, Cole M. “Compulsory Patent Licensing in the United States: An Idea Whose Time Has Come.” Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business 8.3 (1988): 666–685. Print. p671

[19] Correa, 13

[20] Ferrell, John. Patent Pro Se: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Provisional Patent Applications. BayWater Publishing, 2010. Print.

[21] Milchenko, Oleg. “Contemporary Anti-Competetive Practices of Patents Usage.” Journal of International Commercial Law and Technology 8.3 (2013): 1-13. Print.

[22] Shapiro, Carl. “Navigating the Patent Thicket: Cross Licneses, Patent Pools, and Standard Setting.” Innovation Policy and the Economy 1 (2001): 119–150. Print.

[23] McGurk, Thomas B. “The Grant-Back Clause in Your Technology License.” Biodiesel Magazine 17 Jan. 2013.

[24] Origin IP Academy. “Exclusive Grant Back License.” Origiin IP Academy 15 Nov. 2009. Blog. Accessed: http://origiinipae.blogspot.in/2009/11/exclusive-grant-back-license.html

[25] Dykeman, David J. “When Licensing out Patents, Make Sure Improvements Are Granted Back.” Boston Business Journal 8 Mar. 2006. Blog retrieved from: http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/mass-high-tech/2006/03/when-licensing-out-patents-make-sure.html?page=all

[26] Origiin IP Academy. “Coercive Package Licensing.” Origiin IP Academy 11 Nov. 2009. Accessed: http://origiinipae.blogspot.in/2009/11/coercive-package-licensing.html

[27] Reddy, Prashant. “‘Working’ a Patent under the Indian Patent Act, 970 - Does Importation of a Patented Invention Count?” Spicy IP - Decoding Indian Intellectual Property Law. 22 Apr. 2010. Retrieved: http://spicyip.com/2010/04/working-patent-under-indian-patent-act.html

[28] Yang, Deli. “Compulsory Licesning: For Better or for Worse, the Done Deal Lies in the Balance.” Journal of Intellectual Property Rights 17 (2012): 76–81; p80 Print. Global IP Debates

[29] Shaw, Malcom N. International Law 7th Edition. 5th ed. Cambridge University Press, 2003. Print.

[30] Canada had repealed its section on Compulsory Licensing in order to comply with the TRIPS and NAFTA agreements

[31] A more comprehensive approach could be to assess broadly ALL the compulsory licensing cases rather than just a select few ….particularly for United States and Canada...

[32] http://www.aals.org/documents/2006intprop/JeromeReichmanOutline.pdf

[33] Reichman, Jerome. “Compulsory Licensing of Patented Inventions: Comparing United States Law and Practice with Options under the TRIPS Agreement.” Vancouver, Canada: Duke University School of Law, 2006.

[34] Reichman, Jerome H. “Comment: Compulsory Licensing of Patented Pharmaceutical Inventions: Evaluating the Options.” The Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics 37.2 (2009): 247–263. Print.

[35] Pharmaceutical products' means any patented product, or product manufactured through a patented process, of the pharmaceutical sector needed to address public health problems and shall be inclusive of ingredients necessary for their manufacture and diagnostic kits required for their use"

[36] Dratler, Jay. Licensing of Intellectual Property. New York: Law Journal Press, 2005: 7.89 Print.

[37] Miller, Mark E., and David S. Almeling. “DOJ, FTC Redefine Antitrust Rules on Patent Pools.” National Law Journal. 29 Oct. 2007.

[38] Therefore compulsory licensing can be granted given Controller agrees

[39] Raja, Kanaga. “US Leads the World in Use of Compulsory Licenses, Says KEI.” Third World Network. N.p., 18 Mar. 2014.

[40] Bakhru, Rachna. “India Grants First Compulsory Licence under Patents Act.” Intellectual Property Magazine June 2012: 46–47. Print.

[41] Miller Canfield. “China Allows Compulsory Licensing.” Law FIrm of Miller Canfield. Dec. 2012. Retreived: http://www.millercanfield.com/resources-321.html

[42] Genevaz, Simon. “Against Immunity for Unilateral Refusal to Deal in Intellectual Property: Why Antitrust Law Should Not Distingusih between IP and Other Property Rights.” Berkeley Technology Law Journal 19.2 (2014): 742–784. Print.

[43] World Trade Organization. “Canada Is First to Notify Compulsory License to Export Generic Drug.” WTO | 2007 News Items. N.p., 4 Oct. 2007.

[44] sSchmalbeck, Richard L. “The Validity of Grant-Back Clauses in Patent Licensing Agreements.” University of Chicago Law Review 42 (1975): 733–748.

[45] Miller & Ameling, 2007: 3

[46] Lerner, Josh, and Jean Tirole. “Standard-Essential Patents.” Working Paper 43.

[47] Reddy, 2010

[48] See Executive Director of CIS' letter to the government here: http://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/letter-for-establishment-of-patent-pool-for-low-cost-access-devices

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/grounds-for-compulsory-patent-licensing-in-us-canada-china-and-india

Doctors and Translators Are Working Together to Bridge Wikipedia's Medical Language Gap

subha — 2014-08-04T03:29:44Z

I interviewed Wikimedian User:CFCF who is managing the entire project to understand how it is going to work and wrote on Global Voices' Rising Voices about it.

The article was published in GlobalVoices on July 27, 2014. It can be accessed here. It was republished in the Wikimedia Blog on July 30, 2014.

Internet users from around the world often turn to Wikipedia to answer questions of all kinds. The information offered there includes medical subjects, especially important in parts of the world where access to medical professionals may be limited.

However, much of this information can be unreliable and is available only in the most oft-spoken languages.

A group of experienced Wikipedia editors and medical professionals is trying to change that with the Medicine Translation Project, an effort to improve health care-related topics in English Wikipedia and translate them into other languages, including Hindi, Chinese, Persian, Tagalog, Indonesian and Macedonian.

Recently, the Wikimedia Foundation’s Individual Engagement Grant (IEG), a microgrant supporting work on Wikipedia-related activities, granted 10,000 US dollars to the Medicine Translation Project Community Organizing project, which aims to enhance communication and coordination among the team.

Medical student and Wikipedian User:CFCF along with two advisors, Dr. James Heilman (User:Doc James) and Jake Orlowitz (User:Ocaasi) lead the group. We spoke to founder CFCF over email.

Rising Voices (RV): How did the project get started? What inspired it and how did you identify the needs it would fulfill?

CFCF: [...] The project itself started off in 2011 when Dr. James Heilman and a number of translators from Translators Without Borders: Enrique Cavalitto and Ildiko Santana teamed up in an effort to translate medical articles. Since then, the project has exploded into a larger translation forum with hundreds of translators translating articles into almost a hundred different languages. [...]

For Wikimedia projects with a large pool of editors, we have been taking help from editors to assess what is needed, and what should be translated. On smaller projects we have simply set the goal to get anything on World Health Organization (WHO)’s list of essential medicines, as well as anything about neglected tropical diseases, also from a list by the WHO. As for these articles the project is still in an early phase, but we want to cover basically anything that might be relevant to readers, from cancer to emergency medicine.

RV: How is the process of translation going?

CFCF: [...] The problem is that there are so many layers of complications in the translation process. After an article has been written and been subject to review to ensure its quality, the article needs to be prepared and proofed for translation, after which translators need to be found. [...] Many of our translators are medical professionals and have in-depth knowledge in their native languages. On the top of it, they dedicate plenty of time on the content creation and translation. This helps to get good quality translations. What this also means is they they seldom have any knowledge of Wiki markup or Wikipedia. Someone else who knows the language in question has to go through links, templates etc. and fix them, proofread the translated content so it is up to scratch and readable.

CFCF: [...] The problem is that there are so many layers of complications in the translation process. After an article has been written and been subject to review to ensure its quality, the article needs to be prepared and proofed for translation, after which translators need to be found. [...] Many of our translators are medical professionals and have in-depth knowledge in their native languages. On the top of it, they dedicate plenty of time on the content creation and translation. This helps to get good quality translations. What this also means is they they seldom have any knowledge of Wiki markup or Wikipedia. Someone else who knows the language in question has to go through links, templates etc. and fix them, proofread the translated content so it is up to scratch and readable.

RV: How do you address this?

CFCF: To fix all this, it is best to have a local Wikipedian who can integrate the text. Most of the work has already been done. But, getting these things right is very crucial, especially on Wikipedias with vast content, where there already is a lot of content to link in.

I think the resistance we met early in the project's life was not against translation of content. But, because we did not spend enough time getting the translated articles up to shape before sending them live on the target Wikipedia.

What we saw on the Polish Wikipedia was that much of the issues were down to how they used different templates, and after I commissioned a bot to fix this, the articles started going live very quickly. After this, more and more editors became interested in helping out [...]

RV: Are you in conversation with the Wikipedia Zero team — a mobile data project focused on Wikipedia access in the developing world — about popularising this with their partners in the developing nations?

CFCF: Currently we are not in touch with the Wikipedia Zero team specifically, even though our works target the same communities. The difference between us and them is that we target developed countries as well as countries where there barely is any mobile connectivity at all, such as Burma where I do not know if we will be seeing Wikipedia Zero in the foreseeable future [...]

RV: What are your plans to engage with the larger Wikimedia communities that are multilingual and totally diverse?

CFCF: We aim to get high quality content in as many languages as we can. It is difficult to translate such deeply technical content, so we are really looking for professional translators, or individuals with some form of medical background so that information loss and corruption of content in translation is minimal.We recruit translators either off-wiki, or on the medical WikiProjects. We are still looking for translators who feel they are comfortable with such topics, and we especially need them in smaller languages. We are also searching them at Babylon on Meta Wiki.

WikiProject Med Foundation was the first attempt to get a truly global organization of medical Wikipedia editors. Most medical professionals are fluent in English, and we really try to engage in discussion in other languages when we can, so I think there is a real benefit in creating a global community for medical editors.

We are not large enough yet that we have all the relevant people on English Wikipedia, and we will probably never be because there are always specialists in other countries with very specific knowledge that we can leverage. That makes international collaboration really great.

As for the local language integrators, the idea is to have editors who are willing help out and be an intermediary between that community and our translator community. We have a page where all our finished translations are added. An integrator would patrol that page on a regular basis, inform the respective language Wikipedia that the new translation is ready. The language Wikipedia’s reader community share feedback on the translation quality and suggest for improvement. For us, it is really easy to just add articles without going through them thoroughly. But, that would not work at all. For things to work, we need someone who both knows Wiki markup and the target language so that the integration can go smoothly.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/global-voices-subhashish-panigrahi-july-27-2014-doctors-and-translators-are-working-together-to-bridge-wikipedias-medical-language-gap

'Trolled' from US Congress, Wikipedia bans edits

praskrishna — 2014-07-28T10:22:53Z

Online encyclopaedia Wikipedia has issued a ten-day ban against an anonymous editor of its website located on the premises of the U.S. Congress, after the latter engaged in “disruptive editing,” on a wide range of subjects, from moon-landing conspiracy theories linked to Cuba to naming former U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as an alien wizard.

The article by Narayan Lakshman was published in the Hindu on July 25, 2014. Pranesh Prakash gave his inputs.

Many of the seemingly humorous edits were tracked by a Twitter ‘bot’ with the handle @CongressEdits, which is driven by a code to automatically monitor Wikipedia for changes to the site made by accounts with a Congressional IP addresses.

Per the Wikipedia ban, only persons editing the site anonymously are barred from making changes, while Congressional staffers who have created named accounts to log into Wikipedia could continue making edits.

Yet some reports noted that the changes “have become almost troll-like,” alluding for example to an edit on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which changed the text to say that alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was acting “on behalf of the regime of Fidel Castro.”

Another entry revised the biography of Mr. Rumsfeld to describe him as an “alien lizard who eats Mexican babies,” and yet another change suggested that moon-landing conspiracy theories were “promoted by the Cuban government.”

Pranesh Prakash, Policy Director at the Centre for Internet and Society, said to The Hindu via Twitter that Wikipedia’s ban affected up to 9000 people, while only a few pranksters seem to be indulging in vandalism.

“Ironically, it is the public nature of @CongressEdits has led to this increase in attention-seeking vandalism,” he said, adding that such bans, if there are more to come, could “effectively kill projects like @CongressEdits.”

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-narayan-lakshman-july-25-2014-trolled-from-us-congress-wikipedia-bans-edits

Open Knowledge Festival 2014

praskrishna — 2014-07-28T10:17:38Z

Subhashish Panigrahi represented India as the India Ambassador of OpenGLAM local in Berlin. The event was organized by Google, Omidyar, et.al., in Berlin from July 15 to 17, 2014.

Click to read the details on the website here. See the official programme here. Download Subhashish's presentation at this page.

Subhashish presented on the following:

Situation in India

Wikimedia India chapter and WMF's India program working on first India GLAM project
Good traction of image contribution through Wiki Loves Monuments photo contest
Mass communication and other media institutes slowly taking interest in open audio library
Digitization is a priority across government departments, with funding available
Majority of GLAMs lack knowledge about open culture, need for outreach
Relicensing and book digitization have gained public interest
Goals of the survey
Data
Mapping the sector
Encourage institutions to think beyond their digital strategy
Show institutions what is there for them

What we have done so far

Started filing Right to Information (RT) asking state government departments for lists of institutions
Reached out to WMIN (Wikimedia India chapter) for help in creating a list
Difficulty with getting people and contact details

Collaborative Presentation

OKFest2014 glam-survey_workshop_20140717 from Beat Estermann

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/ok-festival-2014

Ministry of Science makes open access to research mandatory

praskrishna — 2014-07-28T09:12:49Z

Researchers who fail to meet the requirements would not considered for promotions, fellowships, future grants or appointments.

The article by Aprajita Singh was published in Down to Earth magazine on July 16, 2014. T. Vishnu Vardhan gave his inputs.

The Centre has made it mandatory for the researchers who receive funds from the Centre to submit a copy of their final research papers to open access journals or online open access repositories.

Stating this, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), both under the Ministry of Science, recently released a draft of their Open Access policy. The departments have also invited comments and suggestions on the same. The document is open for comments till July 25th.

In the draft, DBT and DST have stated that since this research is funded by the public, it is necessary that the knowledge be made accessible to the public as soon as possible, so that it can be read and built upon. This will promote research culture in India.

In the past, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) have also released similar open access policies that encourage authors to make their work easily available to the public.

Traditional journals such as Nature impose a heavy subscription fee for access to their articles, thus limiting the viewers that these papers can reach. In some cases, authors may also be required to sign over their copyright of the paper to the publisher. Scientists consider it to be a matter of prestige to publish their research in these journals as it is believed that the quality of papers published here is superior to that of papers in open access journals.

But the trend slowly changing. According to T Vishnu Vardhan of Bengaluru-based Centre for Internet and Society, “For open access journals like PLoS ONE, a scientist or an author has to pay less than one-third of the cost of publishing that he would pay to traditional models. The publishers have for long been holding forth on the editorial quality that their commercial operations assure, which no more holds ground as the open access journals have historically demonstrated same level of efficiency.” He adds that this is primarily because most of the peer reviewing of scientific scholarly publication is done for free.

The policy proposes that a copy of the paper be submitted to the repository within a week of being accepted by a journal. If the journal imposes an embargo, the paper will remain in the repository, but be made open access only once the embargo ends. Journals can thus charge a subscription fee for the duration of the embargo period. However, the policy asks the authors to suggest that the embargo period be no longer than year.

The departments maintain that while they do expect the authors to publish their work in quality, peer-reviewed journals, the research work done by them should be judged on the basis of the merit of the work and not the journal it is published in.

It also states that authors must submit the deposit ID of the work in question along with the final work, and also while applying for any future funding, or their proposals will not be considered. For authors of research conducted in institutions that come under the control of DBT/DST which do not carry the deposit ID, the penalty proposed is severe. These authors will not be eligible for promotions, fellowships, future grants or appointments.

The policy also provides a copyright addendum which states that the author retains all rights to reproduce and distribute the article, as long as it is not done for monetary purposes.

It is hoped that this policy will encourage other departments to make open access research mandatory too. Senior scientist at ICAR Research Centre for Eastern Region and a member of Open Access India, Sridhar Gutam says that there is a lack of clarity amongst researchers in India over open access policies. He hopes that now that CSIR, ICAR, DBT and DST have rolled out open access policies, this will encourage discussion on the issue and once this policy is finalized, other departments and institutes of higher education and research will follow suit and introduce their own policies.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/down-to-earth-july-16-2014-aparajita-singh-ministry-of-science-makes-open-access-to-research-mandatory

Telugu Wikipedia struggles to stay afloat

praskrishna — 2014-07-28T07:46:10Z

For a language that is spoken by 10 crore people, content is sparse.

The article by Renuka Phadnis was published in the Hindu on July 28, 2014. T. Vishnu Vardhan gave his inputs.

Sujatha, a Chennai-based homemaker, has set for herself the task of updating the Telugu Wikipedia with details of all the districts in Andhra Pradesh.

“I asked others but no one joined me in adding ‘edits’. They said they were too busy,” she says.

For a language that is spoken by 10 crore people, including a tech-savvy population, content in the 11-year-old Telugu Wikipedia is sparse and growing slowly with 20,000 articles added in the last one decade.

T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, Access to Knowledge Programme of Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), said Telugu Wikipedia was lagging behind its other Indian-language counterparts despite there being no other content repository in Telugu.

The reason is not lack of writers in the language. There are 1,000 to 2,000 active Telugu bloggers writing on topics ranging from poetry to politics. In fact, the Telugu Wikipedia was started by such bloggers.

But they are reluctant to contribute to the Telugu Wikipedia and prefer blogging because they can see their names after adding the content. Rahimanuddin Shaik, Programme Officer and system operator for Telugu Wikipedia at CIS, said, “You could call it the ‘identity crisis’ of Telugu Wikipedia writers.”

In 2006-07, an attempt was made to induce content in the Telugu Wikipedia by injecting 30,000 ‘articles’ by a bot, a Python-based script. They were one-liners about villages in Andhra Pradesh, introduced with the expectation that people would add more content. That effort did trigger 5,000 articles.

Later, in 2013, the Telugu Wikipedia became more collaborative and Hyderabad University associated itself with it by hosting Telugu Wikipedia events on its Golden Threshold campus.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-july-27-2014-renuka-phadnis-telugu-wikipedia-struggles-to-stay-afloat

Classical Odia Language in the Digital Age

subha — 2014-07-28T07:41:51Z

The essay was published in the June edition of Odisha Review, a magazine published by Government of Odisha's Department of Information and Public Relations.

Click to read the original article published in Odisha Review here.

Odisha’s documentation and archival history dates back to the pre-Kalinga civilization that existed more than 5,000 years back in which today’s Odisha was a major part of it. It, later was more vibrant when Kalinga kingdom and was widespread from Ganga to Godavari, geographically consisting of modern day Odisha entirely and partly Bangladesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chattishgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana and part of Tamilnadu and Kerala. The epigraphs of cave painting in Gudahandi and stone inscriptions of Hatigumpha in Udayagiri complex are a few examples of the early documentations that the ancestral Kalingan tribes had made. Furthermore, the early Buddhist poets of Kalinga (popularly known as 64 Sidhapada) wrote “ doha ” (spiritual verses) in Pali language. Pali is the language of all of the Buddhist literature and predecessor of modern Odia, Maithili, Bangla and Assamese language and has deep impact on many other Indic languages. Odia has travelled through a long journey of “Tambapata ” (bronze plate inscription), “Talapatra” (palm leaf manuscripts), printed books since early 18th century and e-books in the modern days. Years of history that have perished during invasions by foreign invaders could have told more about this civilization. Modern Odisha state, so far has been able to uphold the pride of having the largest number of palm leaf manuscripts (over 20,000 manuscripts) in the world. Odia printing and publication industry is spread across all the 30 administrative districts of Odisha and other Indian cities like Kolkata and New Delhi and to some extent in some parts of Surat. A few million books would have been printed starting from the first book “New Testament ” that got printed in 1809.[1]

In this chronology there comes the new age reading tools “e-books” or electronic books less formally initiated in the eighties by students of Regional Engineering College, Rourkela (Now National Institute of Rourkela) and now crossed a decade.[2]

Odia got classical status on 20 February this year after 5 other Indian languages on the basis of its literary heritage of over three millennia. Interestingly, it is older than most of the most spoken languages in the world. Like many other mighty civilizations, traders of this region conquered places and took their language and culture to their occupied colonies. Early traders of Kalingan Sadhabas were trading silk and spices with South Asian countries. With them travelled Kalinga’s language and culture. When all of the other language’s have been able to have a strong presence on the Internet, online content available in Odia is way limited compared to even other Indic languages. It has been almost a decade since Odia support is available in most computers across operating systems. But, the digital desktop publishing (DTP) published resources are still not available in a searchable manner – not on internet or in a computer locally. Currently, the Odia publication industry uses proprietary standard fonts for Odia typing. Akruti, LEAP office, Shreelipi are name to few. All of these were the only means for printing books using desktop publishing at one point of time. But, these encoding systems are out-of-date. The major drawback of these fonts is, they have regular Latin characters replaced by Odia characters. If a document is typed using one such fonts is sent to someone it is difficult to even read or reuse if the person in the receiving end does not have the exact font used for typing. As already mentioned the fonts are commercial and proprietary and it is mandatory to buy them to use. In reality most of the users do not buy and use pirated versions of the software for work.

The printed documents typed in one standard is not compatible with the other one. To avoid this problems, an advanced universal standard called “Unicode” was released in early 2000. Unicode has both Odia and Latin characters in a font that allows both the scripts to be displayed correctly at the same time. It is universally compatible and all the operating systems have Unicode fonts installed in the computers. This takes the pain of installing multiple fonts to access any typed text. Searching any text typed in Unicode is as simple as googling something in English. Moreover, documents typed using one Unicode font could be read using another Unicode font. Unfortunately, none of the Odia newspapers have their publications in Unicode at this moment.

This, practically does not allow any reader to search, access, reuse and quote any content. Same is the case for all other published resources like books and magazines. More than 80 per cent of the published content are not even released online and also not archived.

Many publishers, intimidated of online content plagiarism have been protecting their publications. Unfortunately, copyright laws in India are not stringently practiced unlike the west. This has given rise to a parallel piracy market for the movies and music over the years. Interestingly, books are not of that much demand as music and movies are. As a result of the lingua-cultural shift to English from native languages regional language publications are not widely sold in the post-colonial Indian book market as compared to the English publications. The case of the use of Odia language as a language of governance is still not put in place. Odia is still to be used as a medium for official communication in all of the government offices. English medium educational Boards have been domineering over the Odisha state Board. Despite of these challenges, number of Odia dailies is slowly growing. There are around 100 newspapers published daily from various regions of Odisha. It is essential to note that news archives, unlike literary writings have much of any kind of high commercial value. So is in the case of scholarly and research publications. If all of these publications could be made available online in digital form that will take Odia literature to the global audience. This triggers the need of A) making sure the forthcoming publications are not just typed in Unicode but made available online, B) digitization of published books and making them available free on internet.

It is essential to take measures to ascertain the forthcoming publications use Unicode standard and digitizing published matter and publishing them online. Online content could be made available in Unicode and has trillion times reach than printed matter. As a vast number of the users use Microsoft’s Windows XP they could either upgrade their operating system or move to completely free and open source and Linux based operating systems like Ubuntu. At this moment, Odia has far less content on internet.

Odia Wikipedia tops the list of Odia Unicode content websites and is the largest Odia online encyclopaedia with over 8,000 articles. Available for free on or.wikipedia.org, Odia Wikipedia is a community project where any user could create, edit and modify content. The articles being encyclopaedic and referenced from other reliable sources has some level of authenticity. As this is a small project and is developing it needs more voluntary contribution to grow to a larger project that could serve the purpose of an Open Educational Resources (OER) for students. There are a handful of web and news portals maintained by individuals and organizations that have Odia content in Unicode. The other upcoming project is Odia Wikisource which is an online library. Odia books that are useful for the Odia speaking community like classical literature, religious scriptures, dictionaries and lexicons, journals and research papers and manuscripts could go online on this platform. The most important thing about these two projects is that they both have only volunteers as contributors and anyone and everyone could contribute. Any individual or organization who is interested could add a lot of value to Odia language by contributing the process of digitizing content and making them available for free. These projects, additionally are released under Creative Commons Share-Alike licenses that allows free reuse, modification and commercial reproduction of content. Many valuable books could also be part of Odia Wikisource.

Srujanika, a Bhubaneswar based organization in collaboration with National Institute of Technology, Rourkela and Pragati Utkal Sangh, Rourkela has scanned over 760 Odia books. Out of these, over 200 books are hosted in a non-profit project “Open Access to Oriya Books (OAOB)” and hosted at: oaob.nitrkl.ac.in. Organizations like Manik-Smrutinyas and Institute of Odia Studies and Research have re-licensed books of noted author Dr. Jagannath Mohanty and Dr. Debi Prasanna Pattanayak and Subrat Prusty respectively to Creative Commons licenses for free, commercial distribution. Majority of the resourceful magazines like The Utkal Prasanga could be also made available in Unicode standard by changing its copyright terms to Creative Commons licenses. Larger debates are also needed to convince authors and knowledge and information producing organizations/departments like universities and government’s departments (e.g.Information and Public Relations, Department of Mass Education and Department of Statistics.) to migrate from proprietary copyright restrictions to reusable licenses like Creative Commons licenses. This will not only will help for more public-private collaboration and knowledge production but also taking language resources to masses which is discontinued because of lack of updated technological advancement like use of Unicode font and digitizing valuable content. Government portals need Odia localization in Unicode standard so public get access to information in Odia language and this could make e-governance much more easier. Government notifications that often are released publicly are found to be released in image formats. Many such public and private information could just be released in plain text that will increase the searchability, accessibility and reusability million times.

Footnotes:

[1].Pattnaik, Pushpashree. Presentation on digitization of Odia books in Utkal University (21 February 2014).

[2].Mohanty, Jagadish, eSabada. eOdissa.com (2009 - 2010).

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/odisha-review-june-2014-classical-odia-language-in-digital-age

Indian Govt looks to provide free access to publicly-funded research works

praskrishna — 2014-07-28T05:34:37Z

Sunil Abraham gave his inputs to the blog entry published in Medianama on July 23, 2014.

Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Department of Science and Technology (DST), under the Ministry of Science and Technology recently released (pdf) the draft of what is termed as Open Access Policy and has invited comments from the public until July 25, reports The Times of India. Comments can be submitted to madhan@dbt.nic.in.

The objective of this policy is to provide unrestricted access to research work funded by the departments. The draft states that since all funds disbursed by DBT and DST are public funds, it is important that the information and knowledge generated through the use of these funds are made publicly available as soon as possible.

As per the draft, DBT/DST will be creating a central repository wherein grantees can either publish their papers in an open-access journal or post the final accepted manuscript to an online repository. This includes papers funded by the two departments in 2012-13 as well as review articles invited by DBT/DST or author initiated that received funding from these departments.

The draft suggests that the full text of the research paper and metadata of all research projects fully or partially funded by DBT/DST or the projects that utilised infrastructure built with the support of DBT/DST will have to be made publicly available, failing which they wouldn’t be considered for future grants or fellowship opportunities among others.

The department believes that providing free access to these publications through gratis open access repository will enable increasing the distribution of these publications and will ensure that these research can be read and built upon.

Copyright of research papers: The draft also sheds light on copyright issues. It states that research work produced by a scientist as an employee of a government body or private institution the copyright would remain with the respective government body or private institution. However, following the final acceptance of the paper by any journal, it has to be deposited in an open access repository within a period of one week.

The author of the research paper will retain the right to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, and publicly display the article in any medium for non-commercial purposes. They can also prepare derivative works from the article, and authorise others to make any non-commercial use of the article with credit.

Implications: This is a godsend for students, teachers and institutions that don’t have the means to purchase expensive academic journals. Sunil Abraham, executive director of Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) told TOI that the idea is that taxpayers shouldn’t pay twice to access research funded by taxpayers’ money.

Earlier developments in Open Data

In August 2013 the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, the Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET), and National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) had launched an initiative called National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER). The objective was to provide free educational resources to school students under the Creative Common license.

The Union Cabinet had cleared the DST formulated National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NPDSA) back in February 2012. NPDSA was supposed to increase accessibility and ease sharing of non-sensitive data amongst the registered users and their availability for scientific, economic and social developmental purposes. However, very little has been reported on how NPDSA was utilised since then.

Click to read the article published in Medianama here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/medianama-july-23-2014-riddhi-mukherjee-indian-govt-looks-to-provide-free-access-to-public-funded-research-works

Wiki Loves Pride 2014 and Adding Diversity to Wikipedia

dorothy — 2014-07-25T10:56:38Z

Since Wikipedia’s gender gap first came to light in late 2010, Wikipedians have taken the issue to heart, developing projects with a focus on inclusivity in content, editorship and the learning environments relevant to new editors.

Click to read the original published on Wikimedia blog here.

Wiki Loves Pride started from conversations among Wikipedians editing LGBT topics in a variety of fields, including history, popular culture, politics and medicine, and supporters of Wikimedia LGBT - a proposed user group which promotes the development of LGBT-related content on Wikimedia projects in all languages and encourages LGBT organizations to adopt the values of free culture and open access. The group has slowly been building momentum for the past few years, but had not yet executed a major outreach initiative. Wiki Loves Pride helped kickstart the group’s efforts to gather international supporters and expand its language coverage.

Pride Edit-a-Thons and Photo Campaigns Held Internationally

We decided to run a campaign in June (LGBT Pride Month in the United States), culminating with a multi-city edit-a-thon on June 21. We first committed to hosting events in New York City and Portland, Oregon (our cities of residence), hoping others would follow. We also gave individuals the option to contribute remotely, either by improving articles online or by uploading images related to LGBT culture and history. This was of particular importance for users who live in regions of the world less tolerant of LGBT communities, or where it may be dangerous to organize LGBT meetups.

We decided to run a campaign in June (LGBT Pride Month in the United States), culminating with a multi-city edit-a-thon on June 21. We first committed to hosting events in New York City and Portland, Oregon (our cities of residence), hoping others would follow. We also gave individuals the option to contribute remotely, either by improving articles online or by uploading images related to LGBT culture and history. This was of particular importance for users who live in regions of the world less tolerant of LGBT communities, or where it may be dangerous to organize LGBT meetups.

In addition to New York City and Portland, offline events were held in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., with online activities in Houston, Seattle, Seoul, South Africa, Vancouver, Vienna and Warsaw. Events will be held in Bangalore and New Delhi later this month as part of the Centre for Internet and Society’s (CIS) Access to Knowledge (A2K) program. Other Wikimedia chapters have expressed interest in hosting LGBT edit-a-thons in the future.

Campaign Results

The campaign’s “Results” page lists 90 LGBT-related articles which were created on English Wikipedia and links to more than 750 images uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. Also listed are new categories, templates and article drafts, along with “Did you know” (DYK) hooks that appeared on the Main Page and policy proposals which may be of interest to the global LGBT community.

The campaign also attracted participation from Wikimedia projects other than Wikipedia. Wikimedia Commons hosted an LGBT photo challenge, which received more than 50 entries and an LGBT task force was created at Wikidata. So far the group, which also seeks to improve LGBT-related content, has gathered 10 supporters and has adopted a rainbow-colored variation of the Wikidata logo as its symbol.

	Continuing Efforts Our hope is that the campaign will continue to grow and evolve, galvanizing participation in more locations and in different languages. Wiki Loves Pride organizers will continue to provide logistical support to those interested in hosting events and collaborating with cultural institutions. Contiguous with the events of Wiki Loves Pride, Wikimedia LGBT has an open application to achieve user group status from the Wikimedia Affiliations Committee and looks forward to expanding its members and efforts on all fronts.

Continuing Efforts

Our hope is that the campaign will continue to grow and evolve, galvanizing participation in more locations and in different languages. Wiki Loves Pride organizers will continue to provide logistical support to those interested in hosting events and collaborating with cultural institutions.

Contiguous with the events of Wiki Loves Pride, Wikimedia LGBT has an open application to achieve user group status from the Wikimedia Affiliations Committee and looks forward to expanding its members and efforts on all fronts.

Jason Moore, Wikipedian

Dorothy Howard, Wikipedian

Copyright notes: "SF Pride 2014 - Stierch 6.jpg" by SarahStierch , under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported, from Wikimedia Commons, "Portland Pride 2014 - 036.JPG" by Another Believer , under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported, from Wikimedia Commons

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikimedia-blog-dorothy-howard-wiki-loves-pride-2014-and-adding-diversity-to-wikipedia

Font problem hits Odia

praskrishna — 2014-07-25T08:04:20Z

Focus on search for solution to lack of compatibility.

The article by Bibhuti Barik was published in the Telegraph on July 7, 2014. Subhashish Panigrahi gave his inputs.

The available Odia fonts that could be used for digital publications have compatibility problems. The fonts, which number around 10, have been developed for specific purposes and cannot be used in all applications.

Computer application researchers, linguistics, information technology experts and educationists, who met at a workshop here today, urged the state government and the IT industry to ensure the smooth use of Odia fonts.

These fonts are available on different software tools, but if one purchases one of them to install on his or her computer, it fails to open in another system. Since this happens due to lack of compatibility, it also discourages users to use Odia fonts in official work and day-to-day life.

“I think the use of Odia language in computers is restricted only to desktop publication (DTP). As the compatibility factor has come as a major handicap, the use is becoming more restricted in day-to-day life. The state government should come forward to facilitate a software so that the fonts can be used through a uniform system,’’ said linguist and founding director of the Mysore-based Central Institute of Indian Languages, Debi Prasanna Pattanayak.

Subhashish Panigrahi, a Bangalore-based IT professional who is now working on a project for Wikipedia Foundation, said: “Different fonts in Odia came to existence quite late and all were based on the skeleton of Latin fonts so that when one types an English font on the keyboard, the screen shows an Odia font. Later, unicode fonts were developed, which were not only compatible to the Internet, but had elements common with other Indian languages as well.”

Odia publishers did not agree to use the unicode fonts as they were using customised softwares. For this reason, the published books and literature fails to reach the Internet.

In 2011, Srujanika, a city-based organisation, developed a converter to use fonts from other categories to unicode type.

Sujata Patel, chief operating officer of Pune -based Tech Z Solution, said: “The affordability of Odia tools and fonts is a major concern. As they are developed by non-Odia professionals, the aesthetic aspect of Odia fonts and characters are not being taken into consideration.”

Subrat Prusty, member secretary Institute of Odia Studies and Research, said: “Odia is yet to come to the computer screen on different software tools which are used for tables, Internet applications, medical, engineering and business applications.”

“Despite having hundreds of engineering colleges, two technical universities and 10 universities we are yet to use Odia in computers,” Prusty added.

Researchers from US, Singapore, IITs, central universities, IT professionals, linguists, artistes, educationists and students of computer applications took part in the workshop that was organised at the computer science department of the Institute of Technical and Education and Research of Sikhya O Anusandhan University.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/the-telegraph-july-7-2014-bibhuti-barik-font-problem-hits-odia

Plan for open access to science research

praskrishna — 2014-07-25T07:07:15Z

The policy is open to comments from the public till July 25.

The article by Renuka Phadnis was published in the Hindu on July 22, 2014. T. Vishnu Vardhan gave his inputs.

Ever felt frustrated while reading a science research journal online, only to see the message “to continue reading, subscribe now”? That may soon change.

The Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Biotechnology (DBt) under the Ministry of Science and Technology have drafted a policy that says publicly-funded scientific work published in science journals must adhere to open access (OA) norms, enabling anyone to read online content on science research for free.

OA is an initiative of Open Archives Initiative (OAI), an organisation which works for greater reach and free access to online science research funded by public money.

T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, Access to Knowledge, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, which assisted DST in drawing up the draft policy, said that in the absence of OA norms, commercial publishers were making money with content generated by scientists who used public funds for research.

However, those sceptical of the DST initiative are asking whether availability on the Net is equivalent to “public domain”. Concerns have also been raised about the quality of content provided through OA, as honing raw research material into scholarly journals requires rigour that commands a cost. Ramakrishna Ramaswamy, Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Hyderabad, said it was much more important to make reliable information available to the public, at a reasonable charge, because “the price of keeping it free has a cost”. The draft of the DBT-DST Open Access Policy is open to comments from the public till July 25.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-july-22-2014-renuka-phadnis-plan-for-open-access-to-science-research

#NAMA: The Future of Indic Languages

praskrishna — 2014-07-24T07:40:36Z

Medianama is hosting an open house session on "The Digital Future of Indic Languages" at the Oberoi in Bangalore on Thursday, July 24, 2014. The event will begin at 4.30pm and be followed by cocktails and dinner. Subhashish Panigrahi will participate in the event.

The following will be discussed in the event:

Growth of consumption of content in Indic languages in India.
Impact of mobile on Indic languages consumption.
Challenges of discovery of Indic language content: role of social and search.
Defining standards and the role of tools and translation.
Driving user generated Indic language content creation.
Video versus Text in Indic languages.
The role of government policy in supporting Indic language content.
The role of mobile devices and touch screens.
Beyond content: service delivery in Indic languages.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/nama-the-future-of-indic-languages

University of Mysore Re-releases Kannada Vishwakosha (Encyclopaedia) under Creative Commons Free License

pavanaja — 2014-07-24T07:03:45Z

The University of Mysore and the Centre for Internet and Society co-organized the Open Knowledge Day in Mysore on July 15, 2014. On this occasion Mysore University released six volumes of Kannada Vishwakosha under the Creative Commons (CC) license.

Kannada Vishwakosha brought out by the University of Mysore can easily be termed as the best encyclopaedia in Kannada. It has been modelled after the famous Britannica encyclopaedia. Mysore University Vishwakosha has 14 volumes having a total of 13802 pages. The very first volume was brought out in the year 1969 and the final volume was released in 2004. Many famous Kannada authors, scientists, academicians and stalwarts from other fields have worked on creating this encyclopaedia. The print volumes of the first version of the encyclopaedia are out of stock now. Recently UoM has started revising and reprinting the encyclopaedia. So far 4 volumes have been revised, enhanced and published.

UoM believes in Open Access to Knowledge. It has put up the research outputs from its departments online for free access to the public. UoM has done these as a subscriber to the idea of Budapest Open Access Initiative. The Open Access Institutional Repository, of UoM, covers scholarly publications covering journal articles, conference papers, books, book reviews, presentations, reports and patents ever since UoM was established in 1916. Extending the philosophy of open knowledge to the Kannada encyclopaedia published by UoM becomes a natural extension. UoM is in the verge of celebrating its centenary soon and has taken many initiatives in that direction.

CIS-A2K has been in negotiations with UoM towards releasing of its high quality Kannada Vishwakosha (Kannada Encyclopaedia) under Creative Commons license. CIS and UoM signed a MoU on February 22, 2014. Here is the relevant extract from the MoU: "They will work together to digitize all encyclopaedic publications for which the copyright is owned by UoM, and re-release them under the Creative Common license (CC-BY-SA 3.0). The digitized content will be made available for everyone through free content distribution platforms like Wikipedia and Wikisource. The digitization will be done employing the global standard Unicode so that the content has longevity, is universally portable and is easily searchable. Both parties have joined hands to undertake the above in order to enhance digital literacy in the Kannada language and facilitate collaborative production and free dissemination of knowledge in Kannada to the students, academics, researchers and the wider public. The parties also believe that by reintroducing the knowledge in digital and openly accessible formats could significantly enhance the production of knowledge in Kannada and give a new lease of life to Kannada language in the digital era. The parties will co-design and jointly implement relevant programmes to achieve this objective." As part of this MoU, UoM agreed to release the first six volumes of Kannada Vishwakosha under CC.

Volume numbers 1, 2, 4 and 6 of Kannada Vishwakosha of UoM have been revised and published recently. A project page has been created in Kannada Wikipedia for this project. Kannada Wikipedians joined hands in the project. The project involved extracting the text from the soft copies of the files, converting them into Unicode, extracting articles from these files and uploading them to Kannada Wikisource.

A team of interns from Christ University had a major role to play in this development. These were students from the Wikipedia in Education Program that was conducted in Christ University during the academic period of 2013-14. These students took active part in the current project and uploaded about 1200 articles so far (till July 21, 2014).

Media Coverage

The event attracted very good media coverage. Leading English and Kannada dailies like Andolana Kannada, City Today, Deccan Herald, Hosa Diganta, Kannada Jana Mana, Kannada Prabha, Rajya Dharma, Samyukta Karnataka, The Hindu, The New Indian Express, Udayavani, Vijaya Karnataka, and Vijaya Vani published about this. Scanned versions of the published articles can be downloaded here.

Other Links:

UoM Kannada Vishwakosha conversion project page in Kannada Wikipedia - http://bit.ly/mysoreunivwp
Articles from UoM Kannada Vishwakosha in Kannada Wikisource - http://bit.ly/mysoreuniv
Category UoM Kannada Vishwakosha in Kannada Wikisource - http://bit.ly/mysoreunivws
For pictures from the Open Knowledge Day event in Mysore - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mysore_University_Open_Knowledge_Day

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/university-of-mysore-releases-kannada-vishwakosha-under-cc-license

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ବିକାଶର ରାସ୍ତା

subha — 2014-07-23T14:46:26Z

The column was published in Odia newspaper The Sambad's editorial. It shows a comparative analysis of Odia language with other languages — both linguistic and usability in digital platforms. The article also emphasizes on various aspects that need advancements.

The text below is the unedited version which was submitted for publication. For an edited version published by the Sambad on July 21, 2014, click here. Download the PDF here.

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ତାହାର ୨,୫୦୦ ବର୍ଷର ଭାଷାଭିତ୍ତିକ ନଥିକରଣ ଓ ଆହୁରି କେଇ ହଜାର ବର୍ଷର ନଥିକରଣ ହୋଇନଥିବା ଇତିହାସ, ବାକି ଭାଷାମାନଙ୍କଠାରୁ ଖୁବ କମ ପ୍ରଭାବିତ ହୋଇ ଏକ ନିଆରା ଭାଷା ଭାବେ ନିଜେ କେତେ ହଜାର ବର୍ଷ ଧରି ବଢ଼ିଥିବାର ପ୍ରମାଣକୁ ଆଧାର କରି, ଏହି ବର୍ଷ ଫେବ୍ରୁଆରି ୨୦ ତାରିଖରେ ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ମାନ୍ୟତା ପାଇଲା । ଏଠାରେ ଗୋଟିଏ ବିଷୟ ବାରିହୋଇପଡ଼େ, ତାହା ହେଲା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ନିଶ୍ଚିତ ଭାବେ ବାକି ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାମାନଙ୍କ ଠାରୁ ପୁରୁଣା ଓ ଅଧିକ ସମୃଦ୍ଧ । ଅଧିକନ୍ତୁ ଅନେକ ଭାଷାରେ ଯେଉଁଠି କାଳ୍ପନିକ କବିମାନଙ୍କ ରଚନାର ଆଧାର ଅତୀତରେ ରାଜନୈତିକ ଚାପ ବଳରେ ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ମାନ୍ୟତା ହାସଲ କରାଯାଇଥିଲା ସେଠାରେ ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ ରାଜ୍ୟ ଓ କେନ୍ଦ୍ରରେ ଭିନ୍ନ ଭିନ୍ନ ରାଜନୈତିକ ଦଳ ଥିବା ସତ୍ତ୍ବେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆକୁ ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ବୋଲି ମାନିବାକୁ ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ଭାଷା କମିଟି ବାଧ୍ୟ ହେଲା । ତେବେ ଅନ୍ୟଭାଷାକୁ ଆଢ଼ୁଆଳ କରି ନିଜ ଭାଷା ଆଡ଼େ ଆମେ ନିରେଖି ଦେଖିଲେ ଏହାର ଏହି ଲମ୍ବା ଇତିହାସକୁ ଆଗକୁ ବଢ଼ାଇବା ପାଇଁ ବର୍ତମାନ ପାଇଁ କିଛି ବିରାଟ ଆବଶ୍ୟକତା ମଧ୍ୟ ଆମେ ଆଖିରେ ପଡ଼ୁଛି । ଭାଷାଟିଏ କେବଳ ପୁରାତନ ହେଲେ ଚଳିବ ନାହିଁ । ଯେଉଁ ଭାଷାର ବ୍ୟବହାର ଯେତେ ଅଧିକ, ଯେଉଁ ଭାଷା ଯେତେ ଜନାଦୃତ, ଯେଉଁ ଭାଷା ଜଗତରେ ବାକି ଭାଷାମାନଙ୍କ ସହ କାନ୍ଧରେ କାନ୍ଧ ମିଳାଇ ଚାଲିଛି, ଯେଉଁ ଭାଷା କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଯେତେ ବ୍ୟବହାରଯୋଗ୍ୟ, ସେ ଭାଷା ସେତେ ଉନ୍ନତ । ଯଦି ମାଣ୍ଡାରିନ ଭାଷାଭାଷୀ ଲୋକେ ନିଜ ଭୂମିର ସବୁତକ ଥାନରେ ନିଜ ଭାଷା ଆଉ ଲିପିର ବ୍ୟବହାରକୁ କଡ଼ାକଡ଼ି କରିନଥାନ୍ତେ, ଯଦି ଜର୍ମାନଭାଷୀଏ "ୟେସ ସାର" କରି ଇଂରାଜୀକୁ ସହଜରେ ଗ୍ରହଣ କରିନେଇଥାନ୍ତେ, ତେବେ ସେ ଭାଷାସବୁ ଯେତେ ପୁରାତନ ହୋଇଥିଲେ ବି, କଦାପି ସେ ଭାଷାରେ ଆଜି 'ସି' ଆଉ 'ଜାଭା' ଆଦି କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର ଲାଙ୍ଗୁଏଜ ତିଆରି ହୋଇନଥାନ୍ତା । ଥୋକେ ଯେଉଁ କେଇ ବର୍ଷ ତଳେ ପ୍ରଚାର ଆରମ୍ଭ କଲେ ସଂସ୍କୃତ ହେଉଛି କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ସବୁଠାରୁ ଅଧିକ ବ୍ୟବହାରଯୋଗ୍ୟ ସେ ଫସର ଫାଟିଗଲା କେବଳ ତାହାର ସାଧାରଣ ଜନଜୀବନରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର ନ ଥିବାରୁ । ଭାଷାଟିର ବ୍ୟବହାର ନ ହୋଇ ଏହା ଯେ କେବଳ ସାଂସ୍କ୍ରିଟ ଟୁଲ ଆଉ କିଛି ବିଶ୍ୱବିଦ୍ୟାଳୟ ଏବଂ ପୂଜାପଟଳ କରି ଜୀବିକା ବଞ୍ଚାଉଥିବା ଯଜମାନଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଅଧୁନା ବଞ୍ଚିଛି ତାହା ଜଳ ଜଳ ଦିଶୁଛି । ଏଇ ନିକଟରେ, ୨୦୧୦ରେ, ଆଣ୍ଡାମାନର "ବୋ" ଭାଷାଟି ସମାଧି ନେଲା ସେ ଭାଷା କହୁଥିବା ଶେଷ ମାନବୀ ବୋଆ ସିନିଅରଙ୍କ ଦେହାନ୍ତ ସାଙ୍ଗରେ । ଭାଷା ବ୍ୟବହାର ଅଭାବର ଗରଳ ଧୀରେ ଧୀରେ ଏମିତି ଅନେକ ଭାଷାକୁ ମାରୁଛି ଯେଉଁଠି ସେ ଭାଷାମାନଙ୍କର ବିଶାଳ ଇତିହାସ କିମ୍ବା ପୁରାତନପଣ ତାହାକୁ ବଞ୍ଚାଇ ପାରୁନାହିଁ । ତେବେ ରାଜନୈତିକ ଇଚ୍ଛାଶକ୍ତିର ଇନ୍ଧନରେ ଅନେକ ଭାଷା ନାହିଁରୁ ଯେ କାହିଁ ହୋଇଛନ୍ତି ତାହା ଆମେ ଅସ୍ୱୀକାର କରିପାରିବା ନାହିଁ । ତେବେ ଏବେ ବେଳ ଆସିଛି ଅନୁଶୀଳନ କରିବାର କି, ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶ ଓ ଜଗତର ବାକି ଅଧିକ ବ୍ୟବହୃତ ଭାଷାମାନଙ୍କ ସମକକ୍ଷ ହେବା ପାଇଁ ପ୍ରତିବନ୍ଧକ କଣ ରହିଛି ।

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ଯେଉଁ ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ମାନ୍ୟତା ପାଇବା ପଛରେ ତାହାର ସବୁଠାରୁ ଦମ୍ଭିଲା କାରଣଟି ହେଉଛି ଏହାର ନିଆରାପଣ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ଏ ଦୀର୍ଘ କେଇ ବର୍ଷର ଇତିହାସରେ ଯେ ଆଉ ଭାଷାଠାରୁ ପ୍ରଭାବିତ ହୋଇନାହିଁ ତା' ନୁହେଁ । ହେଲେ, ସେ ପ୍ରଭାବ ନଗଣ୍ୟ । ବରଂ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ନିଜର ପଡ଼ୋଶୀ ଭାଷାମାନଙ୍କୁ ତାଠାରୁ କେଇଗୁଣା ଅଧିକ ପ୍ରଭାବିତ କରିଛି ଯାହା ବୋଧେ ଆମ ଇତିହାସରେ ଲିଖିତ ହୋଇନାହିଁ ସ୍ପଷ୍ଟ ଭାବରେ । ହେଲେ ଓଡ଼ିଆର ସୂତା ଲମ୍ବିଛି କଳିଙ୍ଗର ସେଇ କାଳକୁ ଯେଉଁକାଳେ ଏହାର ସାଧବ ପୁଅ ସମଗ୍ର ଦକ୍ଷିଣ ଏସିଆରେ ନିଜର ପତିଆରା ଜାରି ରଖିବାରେ ସଫଳ ହୋଇଥିଲେ ଏକ ବଣିକ ଜାତି ଭାବରେ । କେବଳ ପାଟଲୁଗା ନୁହେଁ, ଏଠାର ଭାଷା, ଚଳଣି, ପାର୍ବଣଠାରୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ମନ୍ଦିର ଓ ସଉଧ ନିର୍ମାଣ ଶୈଳୀଯାଏ ଦରିଆପାରି ଦେଶମାନଙ୍କୁ ଯାଇଥିଲା । ଆଜି ଦକ୍ଷିଣ ଏସିଆର ଲୋକଙ୍କ ମୁଣ୍ଡିଆ ମାରିବା ହେଉ କି ସେମାନଙ୍କ ଖାଦ୍ୟର ଚାଉଳ ବହୁଳ ବ୍ୟବହାର ହେଉ କିମ୍ବା ଜଗତର ବିଶାଳତମ ମନ୍ଦିର ଆଙ୍ଗକ ଓରର ସ୍ଥାପତ୍ୟରେ କଳିଙ୍ଗ ମନ୍ଦିରର ପରିପାଟୀ ହେଉ, ଏସବୁ ଆମକୁ ନିଜର ନିଜର ଲାଗିବା ପଛରେ ରହିଛି ଆମ ବଡ଼ବଡ଼ୁଆଙ୍କ ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧଟି । ଅନେକ ଦକ୍ଷିଣ ଏସିଆର ଭାଷାରେ କ୍ଳିଙ୍ଗ, କେଲିଙ୍ଗ ଆଦି ଶବ୍ଦର ବ୍ୟବହାର ତ ଆମ ଭୂଖଣ୍ଡର ଏ ଦେଶସମୂହଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଅବଦାନର ଆଉ ଏକ ନମୂନା । ତେବେ ଆମର ପୂର୍ବପୁରୁଷ ଯେଉଁ ସବୁ ଦେଶରେ ନିଜର ଉପନିବେଶମାନ ଗଢ଼ିଥିଲେ, ସେଠାର ଭାଷାସବୁ ନିଜ ଭାଷାକୁ ପିନ୍ଧାଲୁଗା କରି ଜଡ଼ାଇ ଧରିବା ବଳରେ ଆଜିର ଯୁବସମାଜ ସେଠାରେ ମୋବାଇଲରେ ନିଜ ଭାଷାରେ ଗେମ ଖେଳୁଛନ୍ତି । ଆଜି ବି ଇଉରୋପ ଆଉ ଆମେରିକା ସେମାନଙ୍କୁ ଭେଦ କରିବାରେ ବିଫଳ ହୋଇଛନ୍ତି ସେମାନଙ୍କର ଏହି ଭାଷା ଆଉ ନିଜ ଚଳଣିର ଦମ୍ଭିଲା ନିଅଁଟି ଲାଗି । ଭାଷା ଯେ କେବଳ କଥା ବାର୍ତ୍ତାର ଏକ ମାଧ୍ୟମ ଆଉ ତାର ଆମ ଜୀବନର ଆଉ କିଛି ଅବଦାନ ନାହିଁ ଏ କଥା ଭାବିବାଠୁ ବଳି ଆଉ ଭୁଲ ନାହିଁ । ପର୍ତ୍ତୁଗୀଜ ପାଦ୍ରିଏ ଗୋଆରେ ପାଦ ଥାପୁ ଥାପୁ ପ୍ରଥମେ ଯାହା ଶିଖିଲେ ତାହା ହେଲା କୋଙ୍କଣୀ ଭାଷା । ସେଥିଲାଗି ସେ ଭାଷାର ପ୍ରଥମ ଛପା ଗ୍ରନ୍ଥଟି ହେଲା ବାଇବେଲର ଟେଷ୍ଟାମେଣ୍ଟ । ଏପରିକି ଆମ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ଆଉ ଅନେକ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାର ପ୍ରଥମ ଛପା ବହି ବାଇବେଲ । କାରଣ ହେଉଛି ଭାଷା ହେଉଛି ଏକ ଜନଜାତିର ଦାଣ୍ଡଦୁଆର । ସେ କବାଟ ଫିଟିଲେ ଯାଇ ଘର ଭିତରକୁ ଯିବା ସମ୍ଭବ । ଏ କଥାଟି ଭଲା ଆମ ନେତାଗଣ ଥରେ ଚେତିଥାନ୍ତେ! ରାଜନୈତିକ ପୃଷ୍ଠପୋଷକତାରେ ଆମ ଭାଷା କାହିଁ କେତେ ଉଚ୍ଚକୁ ଉଠିଥାନ୍ତା! ତେବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆକୁ ଦମ୍ଭିଲା କରିବାକୁ ଯେଉଁ ମୂଳ କେତୋଟି ରୂହ ନିହାତି ଲୋଡ଼ା ସେ ଯଥାକ୍ରମେ ହେବେ ଭାଷାକୁ ସରକାରୀ ସ୍ତରରେ ବାଧ୍ୟତାମୂଳକ କରି ସରକାରୀ ନଥିକରଣରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର, ଭାଷାର ବହୁଳ ବ୍ୟବହାରକୁ ବ୍ୟାପକ କରିବାର ସାଧନ ତିଆରି ଓ ଶେଷରେ ଭାଷା ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧରେ ଅଧିକ ଗବେଷଣା ଓ ଭାଷା ଶିକ୍ଷା ନିମନ୍ତେ ଅଧ୍ୟୟନ କେନ୍ଦ୍ରର ପ୍ରତିଷ୍ଠା ସହିତ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ସ୍ନାତକମାନଙ୍କ ଲାଗି ଅଧିକ ସ୍ୱଚ୍ଛଳ ଚାକିରୀ ।

ପ୍ରଥମ କଥାଟି ବିଚାରିବା । ଏକ ବିଡ଼ମ୍ବିତ ବେଳାରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବଦଳରେ ଇଂରାଜୀରେ ନଥିକରଣ କରାଯିବାର ଏକ ସିଦ୍ଧାନ୍ତ ଓଡ଼ିଶା ସରକାରଙ୍କ ତରଫରୁ ନିଆଯାଇଥିଲା । ଏତେସଂଖ୍ୟକ ସଭ୍ୟଙ୍କ ଉପସ୍ଥିତିରେ କିପରି ଯେ ସେତେବେଳେ ଏହା ବିଧାନସଭାରେ ଗୃହୀତ ହୋଇଥିଲା ତାହା ନିଶ୍ଚେ ଆଲୋଚନାର ବିଷୟ, କିନ୍ତୁ ତା' ଠାରୁ ଆହୁରି ଗୁରୁ ବିଷୟ ହେଉଛି ସେଇ ନିୟମର ସଂଶୋଧନ କରି ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ ସମସ୍ତ ସରକାରୀ ନଥିକରଣ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାରେ ଓ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଲିପିରେ କରିବା ବାଧ୍ୟତାମୂଳକ କରିବା । ଆମ ଦେଶର ଅନେକ ରାଜ୍ୟରେ ସରକାରୀ କାମ ପାଇଁ ସ୍ଥାନୀୟ ଭାଷାର ବ୍ୟବହାର ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଭାବେ ବାଧ୍ୟତାମୂଳକ । ତାମିଲନାଡ଼ୁ ଭଳି ରାଜ୍ୟରେ ଏହା ଏତେ ଅଧିକ କଡ଼ାକଡ଼ି ଯେ ଅଣ-ତାମିଳ ଆଇଏସ ଅଫିସରମାନେ ମଧ୍ୟ ତାମିଳ ବୁଝିବା, ପଢ଼ିବା ଓ ଲେଖିବାକୁ ବାଧ୍ୟ । ସରକାରୀ ଭାବେ ନିୟମଟିଏ ପ୍ରଣୟନ ହେଲେ ତାହା ଭାଷାର ବ୍ୟବହାରରେ କେତେ ଯେ ସାହାଯ୍ୟ କରେ ତାହା ଏଥିରେ ସହଜରେ ଅନୁମିତ ହେବ । ସରକାରୀ କଳର ନଥିକରଣ ଯଥା: ଅଫିସରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାରେ ଲେଖାପଢ଼ା, କିରାଣୀମାନଙ୍କ ଖାତାଆଦିରେ ଲେଖାରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆର ବ୍ୟବହାର, କୋର୍ଟ-କଚେରିରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ବିଚାର-କାରବାର, ସ୍କୁଲ କଲେଜରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ରଚନାଲେଖାଠାରୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ନିୟମିତ ନାନାଦି ଭାଷା ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧିତ ପ୍ରତିଯୋଗିତା ଆଦିର ଆୟୋଜନ କଲେ ଧୀରେ ଧୀରେ ସମସ୍ତ ସ୍ତରରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆର ବ୍ୟବହାର ବଢ଼ିବ । ସାଇନବୋର୍ଡ଼ରେ ଲିପିର ବ୍ୟବହାର ବାବଦରେ କର୍ଣ୍ଣାଟକର ଉଦାହରଣ ନିଆଯାଇପାରେ । ଏହା ବାଧ୍ୟତାମୂଳକ କରାଯିବା ଫଳରେ ଜଣେ ସାଧାରଣ ଅଣ-କର୍ଣ୍ଣାଟକର ଲୋକକୁ କନ୍ନଡ଼ ପଦେ ଶିଖିବାକୁ ପଡ଼ୁଛି । କିନ୍ତୁ ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ ବାଧ୍ୟତାମୂଳକ ନଥିବା ହେତୁ ବାହାରୁ ଲୋକଟିଏ ଆସିଲେ ହିନ୍ଦୀରେ କହିଲେ ଚଳିଯାଉଛି । ଭାଷା ପାଇଁ ସଚେନତତା ତିଆରି କରି ଯାହା ପୁରୁଷେରେ ହୁଏତ ସମ୍ଭବ ହେବନାହିଁ ତାହା ବରଷେରୁ ଉଣା ସମୟରେ ସରକାରୀ ନିୟମଟିଏ ତିଆରି କରି ହୋଇପାରିବ । ଯଦି ବେଙ୍ଗାଳୁରୁର ମିଠାଦୋକାନୀଟିଏ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଲିପିରେ "ଓଡ଼ିଶା ପ୍ରସିଦ୍ଧ ପାହାଳ ରସଗୋଲା" ଲେଖିପାରୁଛି ତାହେଲେ ନାମୀ ଦାମୀ ବ୍ରାଣ୍ଡର ଦୋକାନରେ ବଡ଼ ବଡ଼ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ସାଇନ ବୋର୍ଡ଼ କାହିଁକି ରହିବ ନାହିଁ? ଅଧିକନ୍ତୁ ସରକାରୀ ୱେବସାଇଟର ତଥ୍ୟସମୂହ ମଧ୍ୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ରଖିବା ଜରୁରୀ । ଯଦି ସରକାର ଏଥିରେ କିଛି ଅର୍ଥ ଖର୍ଚ୍ଚ କରି କରନ୍ତି ତାହେଲେ ମଧ୍ୟ ତାହାର ମୂଲ୍ୟ ଅଛି, କାରଣ ଯଦି ସାଧାରଣ ନାଗରିକ ବାପୁଡ଼ାଟି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ତଥ୍ୟ ପାଇପାରିଲା ତାହାଠାରୁ ବଳି ବଡ଼ ଜିନିଷ ଆଉ କିଛି ଅଛି? ଯେଉଁ ଇ-ଗଭର୍ଣ୍ଣାସ ବାବଦରେ କୋଟି କୋଟି ଖର୍ଚ୍ଚ ହୋଇଛି ଆଉ ହେଉଛି ତାହାର ମୂଳ ସୋପାନ ହେଉ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ସମସ୍ତ ଅନୁବାଦ ଆଦି କରି ୱେବସାଇଟ ଓ ତଥ୍ୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଇବା ।

ଗଳିକନ୍ଦିରେ ସ୍ଥାନୀୟ ଲୋକଙ୍କୁ ନେଇ ନାଟକ ଆଦିର ପରିବେଷଣ ଏକ ବିଷୟକୁ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ସାମନାକୁ ଆଣିବାର ଆଉ ଏକ ବିରାଟ ମାଧ୍ୟମ । ଦିଲ୍ଲୀ ଗଣଧର୍ଷଣ ପରେ ସେଠାରେ ସଙ୍ଗଠନ ଓ ଜନସାଧାରଣ ଏତେ ସଂଖ୍ୟାରେ ସଚେତନତାମୂଳକ ନାଟକମାନ ପରିବେଷଣ କରିଥିଲେ ଯେ ତାହା ସ୍ଥାନୀୟ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ମନରେ ଲମ୍ବା ସମୟ ପାଇଁ ଗଭୀର ପ୍ରଭାବ ପକାଇବାରେ ସାହାଯ୍ୟ କରିଥିଲା । ଜନଗଣଙ୍କ ପାଖରେ ଆଉ ଏକ ଜିନିଷ ବହୁ ଅଧିକ ପ୍ରଭାବ ପକାଇଥାଏ । ତାହା ହେଲା ବିଜ୍ଞାପନ ବା ଆଡ଼ । ବିଜ୍ଞାପନ ଦେଖି କେତେଜଣ ସାବୁନ ବା ସାମ୍ପୁ କିଣନ୍ତି ତାହା ମାର୍କେଟ ସର୍ଭେ କରୁଥିବା କମ୍ପାନି କହିପାରିବେ । ହେଲେ ସେଥିରେ ଯୁବକଯୁବତୀଙ୍କ ଭଳି ହରେକ ରକମର ପୋଷାକ ପିନ୍ଧିବା କିବା ସେମାନଙ୍କ ଭଳି ଚଷମାଟେ ମୁଣ୍ଡରେ ଟେକି ଲଗାଇବା ଯେ ଆମ ଅଜାଣତରେ ଆମ ଭିତରକୁ ଆସୁଛି ଏ କଥା ଲେଖକ ହଲପ କରି କହିପାରେ । ଆମ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବିଜ୍ଞାପନ ଯାହା ଟିଭିରେ ଦେଖିବାକୁ ମିଳୁଛି ସେସବୁର ଭାଷାର ନିମ୍ନ ମାନ ଦେଖିଲେ ଲାଗେ ଯେ ଏ ଚାଲୁ ଭାଷା ଆଉ କିଛି କାଳ ଚାଲିଲେ ଆମ ଭାଷାର ଥାଳରୁ ଅକ୍ଷରମାନ ବି ଚଳୁ ହେଇଯିବ । ଓଡ଼ିଶା ସରକାରଙ୍କ ସଂସ୍କୃତି ବିଭାଗ ତରଫରୁ କିଛି ବିଜ୍ଞାପନ ତିଆରି କରାଯାଇପାରନ୍ତା ଆଉ ଭାଷା ଶିକ୍ଷାରେ ଯୁଗଟିଏ ଆଣନ୍ତା ଗଣଶିକ୍ଷା ବିଭାଗ ତରଫରୁ କିଛି ମାଗଣା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଶିକ୍ଷା ଲାଭ ପାଇଁ ସହଜ ଶିକ୍ଷଣ ଓ ତା'ର ମାଗଣା ବିତରଣ । ଚତୁର ବିନୋଦଠାରୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ଅବୋଲକରା କାହାଣୀ ଯାଏ ଆମ ସାହିତ୍ୟର ନାନାଦି ଜଣାଶୁଣା ସାହିତ୍ୟକୁ ଆନିମେସନ ଫିଲ୍ମ, ଗ୍ରାଫିକ ନଭେଲ, କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର ଗେମ ଆଦି ତିଆରି କରାଗଲେ ଆଜିର ପିଲାଠୁ ବୁଢ଼ାଙ୍କର ଅବଚେତନରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ଓ ବିଶେଷ କରି ଶୁଦ୍ଧ ଭାଷା ଆବୋରି ବସିବ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ହେଉଛି ସେହି ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାମାନଙ୍କ ଭିତରୁ ଗୋଟିଏ ଯେଉଁଥିରେ ଖୁବ କମ ଲେଖାଲେଖି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ । କାରଣ ହେଉଛି ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ ଖବରକାଗଜଠାରୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ସରକାରୀ ପ୍ରକାଶନ ପର୍ଯ୍ୟନ୍ତ ଶହେରୁ ଶହେ ପ୍ରକାଶନ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରିବା ପାଇଁ ଏକ ଅଣ-ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ରେ ଫଣ୍ଟ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରିଥାନ୍ତି । ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ଏକ ବିଶ୍ୱଶ୍ରେଣୀର ମାନକ ଯାହା ଉଣାଅଧିକେ ସମସ୍ତ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଫଣ୍ଟଟିଏ ଡାଉନଲୋଡ଼ ନ କରି ବି ପଢ଼ିହୁଏ । କିନ୍ତୁ ଅଣ-ଇଉନୋକୋଡ଼ରେ ଲେଖା ହୋଇଥିବା ପାଠ ପଢ଼ିବା ପାଇଁ ଫଣ୍ଟଟିଏ ଡାଉନଲୋଡ଼ କରିବାକୁ ପଡ଼େ ଯାହା ଏକ ପାଠକ ପାଇଁ କେବଳ କଷ୍ଟକର ନୁହେଁ ବରଂ କପିରାଇଟର ମଧ୍ୟ ଉଲ୍ଲଙ୍ଘନ । ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ଫଣ୍ଟରେ କମ୍ପୁଟରରେ ଆଗରୁ ଇନଷ୍ଟଲ ହୋଇ ଆସୁଥିବାରୁ ସେଥିରେ ସହଜରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖାପଢ଼ା ହୋଇପାରେ । ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଅଧୁନା ସବୁଠାରୁ ଅଧିକ କଣ୍ଟେଣ୍ଟ ଥିବା ୱେବସାଇଟ ହେଉଛି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ । ଏକ ଖୋଲା ଲାଇସେନ୍ସରେ or.wikipedia.org ରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଏହି ଅନଲାଇନ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷରେ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗମାନ ସାଧାରଣ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ଦ୍ୱାରା ତିଆରି ହୋଇ ସମ୍ପାଦିତ ହୋଇଥାଏ । ଯେଉଁ ସ୍ଥାନରେ ଅନେକେ ପ୍ରଶ୍ନ ଉଠାନ୍ତି କାହିଁକି ଜଣେ ସାଧାରଣ ଲୋକକୁ ସମ୍ପାଦନାର ଗୁରୁଭାର ଦିଆଯିବ ସେଠାରେ ଏକ ବ୍ୟବସ୍ଥିତ ପରିବେଶରେ ଆଗରୁ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ଲେଖାମାନଙ୍କର ଆଧାରରେ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଲେଖା ହେଉଛି ଓ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ନଥିବାର ଯେଉଁ ବିଶାଳ ଫାଙ୍କଟି ରହିଛି ତାହା କିଛି ପରିମାଣରେ ଭରୁଛି । ଏହା ପାଖାପାଖି ସମସ୍ତ ଭୁଲଭଟକା ଓ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଗତ ମତରୁ ଲେଖାଗୁଡ଼ିକୁ ଦୂରରେ ରଖିଥାଏ । ତେବେ ଏହି ଭଳି ସାମୁହିକ ଉଦ୍ୟମ କେବଳ ଅଧିକ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ସକ୍ରିୟ ଅବଦାନ ବଳରେ ହିଁ ଆଗକୁ ବଢ଼ିବ, ତୁଚ୍ଛା ସମାଲୋଚନାରୁ ନୁହେଁ ।

ଆମ ଭାଷାର ସାହିତ୍ୟ ଆଉ ଭାଷା ଦିଓଟି ଯାକ ଅଙ୍ଗାଙ୍ଗୀ ଭାବେ ଜଡ଼ିତ । ଏ ଉଭୟ ପୁଣି ସମାଜ ଓ ଆମର ପରିବେଶ ଉପରେ ପ୍ରଭାବ ପକାଇଥାନ୍ତି । କେବଳ ଗପ, କବିତା ଓ ଉପନ୍ୟାସ ନୁହେଁ, ଭାଷାର ଗବେଷଣା, ଲିପିର ଗବେଷଣା ଓ ଭାଷା ଯେଉଁ ଯେଉଁ ସ୍ଥାନରେ ଯେଉଁ ଯେଉଁ ଭାବରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର ହୁଏ ସେ ସବୁର ସନ୍ତୁଳନ ନିତାନ୍ତ ଆବଶ୍ୟକ । ଅନେକ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର ସଫ୍ଟୱାର ଓ ୱେବସାଇଟର ବାହାର ଆବରଣ ବା ଯାହାକୁ ଜଣେ ବ୍ୟବହାରକାରୀ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରି କାମ କରେ, ତାହାର ଟେକନିକାଲ ଶବ୍ଦରାଜି "ଫ୍ରିକୁଏଣ୍ଟଲି ଇଉଜ୍‌ଡ ଏସେନସିଆଲ ଲାଙ୍ଗୁଏଜ (FUEL)" ନାମରେ ଜଣା । ଏହାର ମାନକ ଆଉ ପାଠ୍ୟପୁସ୍ତକରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର ହେଉଥିବା ଭାଷାର ମାନକ ଏକ ହେବା ନିହାତି ଜରୁରୀ । ସେହିଭଳି ଖବରକାଗଜ, ଟିଭି ଓ ବିଜ୍ଞାପନ ଆଦି ସାଧାରଣ ଗଣମାଧ୍ୟମ ଯାହା ପ୍ରତି ନିମିଷରେ ସାଧାରଣ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ପାଖରେ ପହଞ୍ଚୁଛି ତାହାର ଭାଷାରେ ତାଳମେଳ ରହୁନାହିଁ । ଏ ବାବଦରେ ସରକାରଙ୍କ ଶିକ୍ଷା ବିଭାଗ, ଶିକ୍ଷାବିଦ, ବିଭିନ୍ନ ବୟସ-ଜୀବିକା ବର୍ଗର ସାଧାରଣ ବ୍ୟବହାରକାରୀ, ଭାଷାବିଦ ଓ ବୈଷୟିକ ଗବେଷକମାନେ ଏକାଠି ମିଶି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାର ଔପଚାରିକ ଓ ଅନୌପଚାରିକ ବ୍ୟବହାର ତଥା ଶବ୍ଦର ବନାନ ବାବଦରେ ଏକ ସୂଚନା ପୁସ୍ତିକା ତିଆରି କରିପାରିଲେ ତାହା ଉଭୟ ଶିକ୍ଷାନୁଷ୍ଠାନ ତଥା ଗଣମାଧ୍ୟମ ଅନୁଷ୍ଠାନମାନଙ୍କ ବ୍ୟବହାରରେ ଲାଗିବ । ଏହା କେବଳ ଯେ ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶର ଧାରାକୁ ବଞ୍ଚାଇ ରଖିବ ନାହିଁ ବରଞ୍ଚ ଭାଷାର କାନ୍ଧରେ ଯେଉଁ କୁରାଢ଼ୀ ବାରମ୍ବାର ବାଜୁଛି ମିଡ଼ିଆଠାରୁ, ତାହା ସୁଧୁରୁଯିବ ।

ଶେଷରେ ଗୋଟେ ବିଷୟକୁ ଗଣ୍ଠି କରି ଧରିବାକୁ ପଡ଼ିବ । କେଇଜଣ ଓଡ଼ିଆଙ୍କ ଭାଷା ବିମୁଖତାକୁ ଆଧାର କରି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଜାତିକୁ କଙ୍କଡ଼ା କହିବାର ଅବସାନ ହେଉ । ନିଜ ଲୋକଙ୍କୁ ଆଡ଼ ଆଖିରେ ଦେଖି କେଉଁ ଜାତି କେବେ ଉପରକୁ ଉଠିନାହିଁ କି ଉଠିବ ନାହିଁ । ତେବେ ଜଣେ ମୁଖ୍ୟମନ୍ତ୍ରୀର ଓଡ଼ିଆ ନ ଶିଖିବା ପାଇଁ ସଭାସମିତିରେ ଚିତ୍କାର ନ କରି ରାଜନୈତିକ ଦଳକୁ ଗୋଟିଏ ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶ ପାଇଁ ନୂଆ ନୂଆ ଯୋଜନା ନ କରି ତା ଭିତରେ ବିଭେଦ ତିଆରି କରିବାର ବାଟ ତିଆରି ଉପରେ ସମାଲୋଚନା କଲେ, ଭାଷା ପାଇଁ ନୂତନ ଆଶାର ସଂଚାର ହେବ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାର ବିଭବ ତାର କଥିତ ଭାଷାମାନ । ଅଞ୍ଚଳ ଭେଦରେ ଯଦି ଭାଷାର କଥନ ବଦଳୁଛି ତାହା ଏକ ଭାଷାର ବହୁମୁଖୀତାକୁ ଦେଖାଉ ନାହିଁ କି? ଯେଉଁ ଆଣ୍ଟରେ ଗୋପାଳ ପ୍ରହରାଜେ ଓଡ଼ିଶାର ସବୁ ଅଞ୍ଚଳର ଲୋକକଥିତ ଶବ୍ଦସମ୍ଭାରକୁ ନିଜ ଭାଷାକୋଷରେ ସାଇତିଥିଲେ ଯଦି ସେସବୁକୁ ଆମ ଖବରକାଗଜ, ଟିଭି, ବିଜ୍ଞାପନ ଆଦିରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରାଯାଆନ୍ତା, ଖାସ କରି ଅଯଥା ହିନ୍ଦୀ ଶବ୍ଦର ବହୁଳ ବ୍ୟବହାରକୁ ରୋକି ଓଡ଼ିଶାବାସୀ ନିଜ ଅଞ୍ଚଳ ତଥା ବାକି ଅଞ୍ଚଳର ଲୋପ ପାଇଯାଉଥିବା ଅନେକ ଶବ୍ଦର ପରିଚିତି ଜାଣନ୍ତେ । ତେବେ ଭାଷା ସଭିଙ୍କର । ଯେମିତି ଆମ ଘରଲୋକଙ୍କୁ କିଏ ଗାଳିପଦେ ଦେଲେ ଆମ ହିଆକୁ ବାଧୁଛି, ହାତରୁ କଟୁରୀ ଖସୁଛି ସେମିତି ଆମ ଭାଷା ପାଇଁ ଦରଦଟି ପିଲାଙ୍କ ମନରେ ରୋପିଲେ ଆମ ପର ପିଢ଼ି ଯେ ଆଉ ଏକ ଭାଷା ଆନ୍ଦୋଳନ କରି ଜଗତର ବାକି ପାଞ୍ଚ ଭାଷା ଭିତରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆକୁ ଏକ ନ କରିବେ ତାହା କିଏ କହିବ? ଏ ଗୁରୁଦାୟୀତ୍ୱଟି ଅଭିଭାବକମାନଙ୍କର, ଆଉ ଆମ ସଭିଙ୍କର ।

ଲେଖକ ପରିଚିତି
ଶୁଭାଶିଷ ପାଣିଗ୍ରାହୀ ଜଣେ ଶିକ୍ଷାନୁସନ୍ଧାନୀ ଓ ଖୋଲା ଜ୍ଞାନ ବିତରଣ ଗବେଷକ । ସେ ଅଧୁନା ବେଙ୍ଗାଳୁରୁସ୍ଥିତ ସେଣ୍ଟର ଫର ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଏଣ୍ଡ ସୋସାଇଟିର ପ୍ରୋଗ୍ରାମ ଅଫିସର ଭାବେ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାରେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର ଓ ବିକାଶ ଉପରେ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟରତ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାର ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଓ ବହିର ଡିଜିଟାଲ ସଂସ୍କରଣ ରୂପ ନିମନ୍ତେ ସେ ଅଧୁନା ଆକସେସ ଟୁ ନଲେଜ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପରେ କଲେଜ ଓ ବିଶ୍ୱବିଦ୍ୟାଳୟ ସ୍ତରରେ ଅଧ୍ୟାପକ ଓ ଛାତ୍ରମାନଙ୍କୁ ନେଇ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର ଯୋଗେ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଓ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରର ବିକାଶ ନିମନ୍ତେ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟ କରୁଛନ୍ତି ।ସେ ବହୁକାଳ ଧରି ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ, ମୋଜିଲା ଭଳି ଆନ୍ଦୋଳନ ତଥା ଓପନଗ୍ଲାମ ଓ ଓପନ ଏଜୁକେସନ ଭଳି ବିଶ୍ୱସ୍ତରୀୟ ସାଙ୍ଗଠନିକ ସମ୍ମିଳନୀର ଭାଗ ନେଇ ଭାଷା ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧରେ ଆଲୋଚନାରେ ଭାଗ ନେଇଛନ୍ତି । ଭାଷା ଗବେଷଣା ଓ ବ୍ୟବହାର ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧରେ ତାଙ୍କ ରଚିତ ପ୍ରବନ୍ଧମାନ ଅନେକ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଖବରକାଗଜ, ପତ୍ରପତ୍ରିକା ଓ ବିଶ୍ୱସ୍ତରୀୟ ବ୍ଲଗମାନଙ୍କରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ।

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/sambad-july-21-2014-paths-for-development-of-odia-language